The Future of the Global Automotive Airbag Market – Key Trends and Innovations
As the global automotive sector is witnessing rapid growth, manufacturers are increasingly invested in improvements to fuel efficiency, driving experience, and more importantly, the safety of the driver and passengers. While conventional safety systems for automobiles largely relied on seatbelts, recent years have witnessed a major influx of air bag systems into mainstream automobile production.
Airbags are inflatable cushions that have been primarily developed to protect passengers and drivers from serious injury in cases of major collision. Air bags are an essential component of air cushion restraint systems, which aim to supplement the primary protections provided by seat belts. The system normally comprises tor lamps, air bag, steering wheel, connecting coils, gas generator, diagnostic monitoring units, and crash sensors.
It is fairly common for automobiles to earn better safety ratings and certification based on their airbag systems. Automotive air bag systems include frontal, side torso and side curtain airbags. Premium vehicle versions are also likely to be installed with rear-seat airbags.
Leading Innovations in the Airbag Industry
The future of airbag technology is expected to make automotive travel much safer. Some of the major innovations becoming mainstream in the auto sector include inflatable seat belts, which provide a marked reduction chest, head, and neck injuries. Also, knee airbags have made advances, which are largely designed to reduce injuries to limbs and organs of the lower body. These driver airbags are wedged between glovebox panels, which inflate towards the front of the driver and front passenger’s legs.
Another prominent innovation has been the front center airbag. Introduced initially by General Motors, this type of airbag is positioned towards the center of vehicle, between the front seats, and is aimed to reduce the impact of passenger side crashes, and reduce damage from impacts between the driver and other passengers.
Innovations to Minimize Airbag Injuries
The deployment process of airbags takes place in the span of a few milliseconds, owing to the explosive force created by the gas generator in inflating the bags. Consequently, people hit by airbags are liable to be injured and in rare cases even killed. To solve the issue, auto OEMs have replaced conventional airbags with depowered variants, which substantially reduce inflation forces.
Further, modern airbags have improved on functionality with dual stage designs, which can deploy in varying speeds through the analysis of the impact, primarily to reduce injury risks for children. Another innovation in a similar vein is the venting airbag which relies on the forward movement of the passenger or driver to inflate, reducing the speed of inflation in lower intensity impacts.
Future Prospects of Automotive Airbag Market
According to a recent study by Future Market Insights, the global automotive airbags market is expected to rise strongly and surpass US$ 25 billion in the coming decade. Government and international initiatives to cut down the number of road fatalities, which has forced automotive OEMs to install airbag systems in both mainstream commercial vehicles and passenger cars.
The industry is expected to witness significant improvements in active pre-collision technologies. Sensors, and by wire technologies have major advancements in driver assistance functionality to improve crash mitigation, allowing deployment even before the accident with low energy.
With all of these lifesaving airbag innovations, the automotive accident survival rate is likely to witness a significant increase in the near future. Manufacturers in the curtain automotive airbag market have been observed designing wearable versions of airbags, aimed towards two-wheeler riders. Some air bag systems are also developed to protect the car exteriors to minimize the change of injuries to passengers within. Changing safety regulations will remain major influencers for developments in the global automotive airbag marker for the foreseeable future.