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bumper

 air filled bumper
 
(0) 		  [vote for,
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Hi I had an idia about reducing damage and injury in car accidents.So I made a rubber abumper and filled it with pressured air.I hit it to another car(to the door)in about 30 km/p/h.It was unbeliveable.no damage to the cars. If any question I would be glad to hear from you. Plz email me to (bezadhamidi@yahoo.com) Sincerely Yours Behzad Hamidi
—bezadhamidi, Nov 26 2002

(?) Buick Apollo '74 http://www.buickapo...om/apollofacts.html
...had "gas pressurized bumper absorbers", which I take to be much the same thing. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       >pop<
—tyskland, Nov 26 2002
   

       unbeliveable
—po, Nov 26 2002
   

       Oh dear.
—st3f, Nov 26 2002
   

       Putting tires around the front of the car - contrary to the doom and gloom set above, it sounds doable. However, it turns out someone (other than bezad) already done it - see link.
—DrCurry, Nov 26 2002
   

       //gas pressurized bumper absorbers//
Actually these are not the same thing, they were exactly like shock absorbers, but between the bumper and the body of the car. They were common on American-made cars in the 70s and 80s, but I don't think they are used much anymore.
—krelnik, Nov 26 2002
   

       Sounds like something from a Mad Max movie . . .
—TheViewFrom6feet, Nov 26 2002
   

       Place the word 'cars' after the ideas name...maybe,just maybe that is what this is, only faster
—skinflaps, Nov 26 2002
   

       Now, now - I believer the author is describing a rubber bladder filled with air. *If* you think about it, it makes sense.
<Opens>Inevitable whoopee cushion annotation floodgate</Opens>
—thumbwax, Nov 27 2002
   

       Hmmmm... bit of newbie baiting going on here?   

       This is a good idea, the author has tried it and he says it works! Many manufacturers are currently looking at the feasibility of external airbags and this seems to be a low cost alternative. We accept pressurized balloons around the road wheels, why not fitted to the collision points?   

       The only drawback I can see in the real world is that they would need to be maintained at pressure in the same way that tyres are , and this may be neglected unless something like a tyre pressure sensor were fitted to an annoying warning device in the cabin.   

       Alternatively, a small air compressor fitted to the engine could supply pressure to a speed dependant regulator, the faster you go the greater the cushioning effect.
—egbert, Nov 27 2002
   

       The [egbert] air compressor doesn't even need to be speed regulated. Just determine the optimum safe pressure that the bumper should operate at, and then set your air compressor to maintain that pressure. Presumably, you would use the exact same system that many automobiles use for automatic load-leveling their suspensions. Or alternatively, why not consider filling the bumper with water instead of air (like they do with the collision cannisters at many freeway off-ramp sites) to provide greater stopping resistance without dispersing another problem fluid onto the roadway.
—jurist, Nov 27 2002
   

       Well, I was just thinking that the pressure needed to cushion an impact with a vehicle/wall at speed would be greater than that needed to soften a 20mph collision with a pedestrian, otherwise the poor person would be bounced into the air cartoon-style and end up with worse injuries!   

       Thinking a little more, though, you'd have to regulate for more than absolute velocity. Differential speed would be more useful - not impossible, closing speed and parking sensors already exist. However for maximum optimisation you'd also have to measure rigidity and frontal area of the object in question, (cf. pedestrian and streetlight) and adjust the pressure in the bumper to provide the deceleration which would result in least damage to the softer or larger party.   

       [jurist], I think water is used in canisters to reduce momentum in a collision, this can only happen if it is free to react equally and oppositely. Once constrained, it is incompressible and so would not absorb energy in itself, but dissipate it into deforming the rubber casing away from the collision site. I don't think this would be as effective as using the energy to compress a gas.
—egbert, Nov 27 2002
   

       Great! I had this idea too - years ago. But with a twist. The air is INJECTED either by a button press or in response to the braking action like with the locking mechanism on seatbelts. So you're driving along and everything's normal until a pedestrian steps in front of you. Inflate the bladders and give him a safer bump instead of a broken leg. Or if you brake hard the bladders inflate and soften the blow if you make contact.
—desperado, Feb 04 2003
   

       I would like it if the bladders could be filled with gasoline.
—snarfyguy, Feb 04 2003
   

       pop...spark, KABOOOM. lol. +
—synergy~, Oct 21 2003
   
      
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