Autoliv demonstrates slim, expandable roof pillar

Autoliv, the automotive safety systems company, has presented the test results of its latest innovation at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference in Stockholm.
The new product is an expandable roof pillar for the windshield that is three times thinner than a traditional windshield pillar to both improve the driver’s field of view for increased safety and reduce weight. The risk of roof intrusion is also reduced.
The new windshield pillar is 10 per cent lighter than a traditional pillar and increases the driver’s vision angle by 25 per cent compared to a ‘state-of-the-art windshield pillar’.
Autoliv’s new roof pillar will expand in a crash using airbag technology. In order to achieve this, the cross section of the new windshield pillar consists of a folded and airtight structure. When the very powerful gas generator expands the new pillar, the stiffness of the pillar increases by 45 per cent, according to tests with car bodies.
It is the brainchild of Active Body Structures specialist Dr. Bengt Pipkorn: “We have been working on the project for two
years and test results have been very good.”
Car aesthetics will also benefit from Autoliv's new pillar concept, as the slimmer pillars would allow designers much more styling freedom to explore different body shapes.