Tech Profile: Seamless Passenger Airbags

Compared to a separate airbag lid, seamless (integrated) airbag doors reduce the number of parts in assembly and avoid quality problems caused by the need to match colour, gloss and grain of 2 parts that must look the same. However, the door-forming part of the IP must be pre-weakened so that during deployment of the bag, the door opens along a defined U- or H-line without particle projection.

Since the 1994 introduction of the first European seamless airbag door by Audi with the A 8, their number has steadily increased, reaching 8.9 million car units (54%) in 2003. All car segments are concerned: VW Lupo and Nissan Micra (segment A) feature invisible airbag doors as well as the new VW Golf (segment C) and the BMW 7 series (segment E).

The first injection-molded IP with a seamless airbag door was the Opel Corsa replacement, introduced in 2000. The 1998 VW Lupo also had a hard IP surface, but it was covered by an adhesive-laminated TPO vacform foil.

Most car models currently in development use seamless airbag door technology, so by 2005, approximately 80% of the European car production will have seamless airbag doors.

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Seamless airbag - hard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 35 117 166 Seamless airbag - soft 0 0 0 0 5 381 637 1166 1659 2806 Seamless airbag - all 0 0 0 0 5 381 637 1204 1776 2972 Total Car Production 10500 11000 11500 12000 12500 13000 13500 14000 15000 15900 Others 10500 11000 11500 12000 12495 12619 12863 12799 13224 12928

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Seamless airbag - hard 1032 968 690 2038 2399 3195 3950 4500 Seamless airbag - soft 3625 4886 5943 6860 9778 10235 9568 9419 Seamless airbag - all 4657 5854 6633 8898 12177 13430 13518 13919 Total Car Production 16300 16600 15900 16600 16800 17000 16600 16600 Others 11644 10746 9267 7702 4623 3570 3082 2681