Ford has filed a patent application for a headliner airbag.
Although rollovers aren’t common, they do occur and are quite dangerous for vehicle occupants. As you can imagine, when a rollover occurs the head of an occupant can easily hit the roof of a vehicle. This led Ford to develop what is essentially a headliner airbag, in hopes of reducing the amount of impact energy transferred from the headliner to the occupant during a rollover.
Basically the airbag would be sandwiched between the headliner and roof panel and whenever a rollover is sensed, it would deploy, pushing the headliner towards the occupant of the vehicle and increasing the space between the headliner and the roof panel.
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One key point in the patent application is that the airbag could be integrated into existing vehicles without the need for major structural changes, helping reduce development time and cost.
The patent application was filed in the U.K. on September 16, 2016 and was published on March 22, 2017.
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