Kettering University

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Building better car seats

By Dawn Hibbard

The New Safety 1st Car Seat has Air Protect™—the most innovative and groundbreaking safety feature ever offered in a car seat. Developed in conjunction with Kettering’s Crash Safety Center, Air Protect™ is designed to protect children in side impact collisions, putting a state-of-the-art layer of air protection where it’s needed most, around the child’s head.

Side impact crashes have dramatically increased over the past two decades and are today the deadliest kind of crashes for children. The vast majority of these fatalities are due to head trauma, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“There is currently no government-mandated test requirement for side impacts related to child seats,” said Dr. Janet Brelin-Fornari, professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of Kettering’s Crash Safety Center.

“Dorel is actually moving ahead of government regulations to produce a safer car seat for side impact crashes because they want to be leaders in reducing the risk of injury to children during collisions,” she added. NHTSA is utilizing the research conducted by Dorel and Brelin-Fornari to develop standards for side impact testing of car seats, according to Brelin-Fornari.

Through the precise release of air, Air Protect™ compresses and shields children from side impact intrusion and immediately reduces crash forces where the child is most vulnerable – the head. Air Protect™ does this by extending ride-down, the amount of time it takes to slow a child’s movement in a crash. By extending ride-down time, Air Protect™ creates a slower, softer landing.

The Dorel/Kettering Method - Air Protect™ was developed as a result of a revolutionary testing method. The Dorel/Kettering Method uses an intruding door technique, instead of a fixed door, to simulate a side impact crash with far more accuracy. In a side impact crash, a car door moves inward, toward the child.

Global Testing and Engineering Services collaborated with Kettering to design the fixtures that simulated real-world crash events, said Brelin-Fornari.

“Dorel continues to be the leader in the car seat category and with this unique testing approach has created a new level of side impact protection for children, the likes of which have never been seen before,” said Dave Taylor, president of Dorel Juvenile Group US. “This new testing method is so significant that we have shared our findings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, supporting NHTSA’s efforts to provide more comprehensive regulation for side impact crash testing,” he added.

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