Autoliv is further expanding its safety system offering for passengers in the rear seats with the Bag-in-belt. As the name suggests, the Bag-in-belt is a combination of a seatbelt and an airbag to further reduce the load on the occupant’s ribcage in a frontal collision. This new seatbelt is developed in cooperation with Daimler and is first offered on their new flagship Mercedes S-class.
When the vehicle crash sensors detect a frontal impact, the airbag control unit triggers the deployment of the Bag-in-belt. Similar to an airbag deployment, a gasgenerator inflates the multi-layered webbing forcing the integrated stitched seams to rip apart. This results in a three times larger surface area that better distributes the crash force on the occupant to reduce the risk of injury.
The Bag-in-belt is used in exactly the same way as a conventional seatbelt and received praise in practical trials by Mercedes for being extremely comfortable to wear and for its extra-soft belt strap edge.
