What Does An Air Bag Consist of?

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There are three parts to an air bag that help to accomplish slowing down the passenger before the point of impact. The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric that is folded into the steering wheel or dashboard and more recently, the seat or door.

The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. Inflation happens when there is a collision force equal to running into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per hour. A mechanical switch if flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an electrical contact, telling the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive information from an accelerometer built into a microchip.

The air bag's inflation system reacts sodium azide with potassium nitrate to produce nitrogen gas. Hot blasts of the nitrogen inflate the air bag.



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