AIR BAG VEST BLADDER MANUFACTURING — KARTHIK GOVINDARAJAN

AIRBAG VEST BLADDER MANUFACTURING

As part of business diversification, We were involved in developing airbag vests for motorcycle riders. These motorcycle airbag vests inflate in a fraction of a second to protect the rider in the event of a crash or impact. The resulting air cushion protects the rider’s spine, ribcage, and neck/collarbone region.

Step 1 : Material Identification

The construction of most Motorcycle Air Bag Vests follows a similar pattern

- The internal bladder comprises of a 4 m long seamless polymer tube of 80 mm diameter, Layflat width of 125 mm, and 0.2mm film thickness.

- Sealed at the ends

- Embossed and holes punched in the Inflator assembly area

To find out the polymer tube material, FTIR spectroscopy was performed. The polymer was identified as Polyurethane/ TPU

Step 2 : Mechanical / Physical Testing

Mechanical Testing for the following parameters was performed

this process helps to characterize the film material

Step 3: Sourcing

A key step in the process is to source the TPU Film
With the available mechanical properties and FTIR trace, identified a supplier in China, who had similar capabilities. Fortunately, equivalent material was available in ready stock.
100 m per roll and the pricing is per m.

Step 4 : Design & Manufacture of HF Sealing, Embossing tools

For end sealing, a top plate and a bottom sealing die were designed and machined out of brass
For embossing, a brass top plate with the emboss features was made
These sealing and embossing dies were used in a 5 kW High-Frequency sealing machine
Punches required for the process were sourced