The Fast Path System: Simplifying the Task of Identifying Successful Material/Design Combinations for Efficient Energy Management for Automotive Head Impact Requirements

This paper will provide an overview of the “Fast Path” project which was designed to address the requirements of the new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 201 Extended Rule, for automotive interior head impact protection.

It will discuss the following topics: developing a system to identify successful combinations of materials and energy absorbing designs for automotive interior trim head impact applications, designing component testing and tooling, establishing a ranking methodology to provide engineering direction for future automotive products, and correlating to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling.