The core innovations team at Joyson Safety Systems (Aschaffenburg, Germany) started a project to investigate the additive manufacturing field, looking at its possibilities and potentials to discover new processes and materials to use for manufacturing an airbag housing container. The company provides safety-critical components, systems, and technology to the automotive and non-automotive markets.
The performance of the Driver Airbag (DAB) housing part is extremely essential, as it is a safety component in the vehicle.
After running some market analysis in order to find out the most suitable material and process that could deliver the required performance, the Joyson Safety Systems team learned about CRP Technology’s Windform TOP-LINE family of composite materials and, specifically, the Windform SP material.
Windform SP, which is produced from polyamide grades and reinforced with carbon fiber as a powder form material, had the requirements and even better performance for Joyson’s application.
The collaboration with CRP Technology (Modena, Italy) led to the use of laser sintering (an additive manufacturing process) with Windform SP Carbon composite material, which made it possible to produce a functional prototype and test it in a complete airbag module within a short period.
The test led to very good results, as the material exhibits an excellent mechanical performance in terms of high strength and impact resistance as well a good thermal stability between a low and high range of temperatures (23°C, -35°C, and 85°C).
For more information, please visit joysonsafety.com and crptechnology.com.