Side impact collision is one of the toughest safety challenges
facing the Auto Industry today. Over thirteen thousand deaths, due
to side impact, occurred during 1998 in the United States alone.
The main difficulty in designing for side impact collisions is the
limited crumple zone between the impacting vehicle and the impacted
occupant.
This paper presents a proprietary side impact protective door
system within the space between the outer skin of a car door and
the occupant, which will be as efficient as those already standard
in frontal impact. The main objective for introducing the side
impact structural system is to maximize energy absorption and
minimize injury to the occupant.
The developed structural side impact door system acts as a
Primary Structure, to be assembled as a truly modular entity. This
primary structure is also packaging modular in the sense that it
acts as a carrier for the door latch, window regulator and
hinges.
A variation in safety and structural performance of the
developed door system can be achieved by integrating the structural
modular door with the vehicle body, using a patented integration
system known as Door And Chassis-frame Integration Technology
(DACIT). Unlike the traditional doors, that are just suspended
weights, the modular door is truly structural and therefore adds
strength to the vehicle body. When DACIT is used with the door
system the vehicle door becomes part of the overall vehicle
structure.
The design and development of the side impact modular door
system for different size vehicles with and without DACIT will be
discussed. In addition, the five stars rating achieved during
several side impact crash tests simulating Sport Utility Vehicles
hitting mid-size vehicles, equipped with the developed modular door
system, will be presented.