Why Plastics are the Premier Choice for Manufacturing Automobile Air Bags?

The automobile industry utilizes a variety of plastic materials and composites to create different components. There are three primary reasons for this:

1. Plastic is a lightweight material. Hence, using plastic materials for components like the dashboards, wire connectors, buttons, can help reduce the car’s overall weight.

2. Plastics are more cost-effective than most metals. Hence, automotive manufacturers can reduce their overall expenditure by using plastic automobile components.

3. The use of plastics enhances the safety of the driver. In a report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) suggested that the use of plastics and composites in automobiles has helped save more than 613,501 people between the years 1960 and 2012.

When it comes to driver and passenger safety, one automobile component that is well-known for its plastic construction is the air bag. Why is it well-known? Read on to know more.

 Why Plastic is a Great Air Bag Manufacturing Material ?

Plastic air bags are woven from a nylon type fabric. Along with the primary material, urethane and silicone coated materials are also used to manufacture the air bag. The advantage of using these materials is that they allow the bag to act as a heat shield. Plastic has got other benefits that make it a suitable air bag manufacturing material. These benefits are provided in the points below.

• Plastic helps reduce the weight of the air bag from 85 to 35 grams.
• The thermoplastic construction provides the air bag with low temperature flexibility, as well as resistance to a variety of oils, grease, and chemicals.
• Thermoplastic materials are created using renewable materials. Hence, this makes the air bag an eco-friendly product.
• When the bag needs to be deployed and inflated, an electronic trigger ignites a propellant, which creates a hot gas that inflates the bag rapidly. The urethane and silicone coatings prevent the bag’s surface temperature from increasing rapidly during the inflation process.
• Besides heat resistance, silicone coatings also help maintain the surface durability of the air bag, leading to consistent performance for many years.

Thermoplastic materials can help enhance the automobile’s design in terms of safety, and provide a better driving experience for the user.