Plastic Housings for Safety Critical Air Bag Triggering Units

The automotive industry has been very reluctant in using plastic housings for air bag triggering units. The critical question has always been: “Can the accelerometers, mounted inside the air bag triggering unit, discriminate the crash pulse satisfactorily? And can it also do so under all environmental circumstances and over the specified life span?”

This paper describes the steps which were necessary to introduce plastic housings into the market for air bag triggering units.