Crash-Activated Headrests, BMW

Crash-Activated Headrests

In autumn 2007 occupant safety in BMW cars is being optimised through the introduction of crash-activated headrests: All models in the BMW 6 and the BMW 5 Series, as well as the BMW X5 and BMW X3, now come as standard with these newly developed headrests significantly reducing the risk of cervical vertebra injury in the event of a collision from the rear. Masterminded by the car's safety electronics, these crash-activated headrests move up to 60 millimetres or 2.36" forward and up to 40 millimetres or 1.57" upward within fractions of a second in the event of a collision, reducing the gap between the headrests and the occupant's head before his head can be thrown back by the forces acting on the car. This enhances the stabilising safety function of the headrest and minimises the risk of injury or over-stretching the occupant's cervical vertebrae.

The cervical vertebra (CV) syndrome also referred to as the whiplash trauma is one of the most common types of injury in traffic accidents and is caused by sudden impacts from behind.

Highly painful in many cases, such a trauma may even result from a rear-end collision at low speeds in city traffic. To avoid collisions of this kind, BMW introduced two-stage brake lights back in 2003, the illuminated area of the brake lights becoming larger whenever the driver applies the brakes particularly hard, thus giving motorists following from behind an absolutely clear and informative signal, telling them to brake hard too. And now the new crash-activated headrests offer the occupant of a BMW additional protection in such a situation, whenever a collision can no longer be avoided.

From outside the crash-activated headrests can be clearly distinguished through their two-piece look formed by the headrest support and the impact plate together with its padding moving variably as required to the front. At the side, in turn, the padded section features a button for manual adjustment of headrest depth in the interest of enhanced driving comfort, enabling the user to vary the position of the padding within three different levels by up to 30 millimetres or 1.18". In a collision the impact plate together with the padding will instantaneously move forward by up to 60 millimetres or 2.36", reducing the gap between the headrest and the occupant's head. And at the same time the impact plate and padding will move up by up to 40 millimetres or 1.57".

A second variant of the crash-activated headrest has been developed for BMW's comfort seats, in this case featuring side supports stretching along the entire height of the headrest padding. This new version replaces the former active headrests on the comfort seats.

The interior of both types of crash-activated headrests comprises complex, spring-driven mechanical operating units activated by a pyro-actuator. As soon as the pyro-actuator ignites, it propels a release stick moving a release plate and setting two adjustment springs free. These springs, in turn, move the impact plate and the headrest padding both forward and upward.The pyro-actuator receives its ignition signal from the airbag control unit as soon as the sensors detect a relevant impact at the rear of the car, this system developed by BMW thus acting very quickly and efficiently in protecting the occupants from whiplash trauma.

The new crash-activated headrests enhance not only the stabilising and safety functions of the headrest, but also the level of comfort while motoring. Conventional headrests set to the right position are often perceived as too close to the occupant's head and therefore appear to limit his freedom of movement. The new crash-activated headrests, in turn, provide not only enhanced safety, but also an improved feeling of space, since they are not required to rest directly on the occupant's head while driving.

Once the safety mechanism in the crash-activated headrests has been actuated, an appropriate Check/Control message will appear in the instrument cluster, reminding the driver to go to a BMW workshop in order to renew the pyro-actuator in the release system.

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The Voyager Spacecraft

NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment.

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. They continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto.

"The Voyager mission is a legend in the annals of space exploration. It opened our eyes to the scientific richness of the outer solar system, and it has pioneered the deepest exploration of the sun's domain ever conducted," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "It's a testament to Voyager's designers, builders and operators that both spacecraft continue to deliver important findings more than 25 years after their primary mission to Jupiter and Saturn concluded."

During their first dozen years of flight, the spacecraft made detailed explorations of Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons, and conducted the first explorations of Uranus and Neptune. These planets were previously unknown worlds. The Voyagers returned never-before-seen images and scientific data, making fundamental discoveries about the outer planets and their moons. The spacecraft revealed Jupiter's
turbulent atmosphere, which includes dozens of interacting
hurricane-like storm systems, and erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. They also showed waves and fine structure in Saturn's icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons.

For the past 19 years, the twin Voyagers have been probing the sun's outer heliosphere and its boundary with interstellar space. Both Voyagers remain healthy and are returning scientific data 30 years after their launches.

Voyager 1 currently is the farthest human-made object at a distance from the sun of about 9.7 billion miles. Voyager 2 is about 7.8 billion miles from the sun. Originally designed as a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyager tours were extended because of their successful achievements and a rare planetary alignment. The two-planet mission eventually became a four-planet grand tour. After completing that extended mission, the two spacecraft began the task of exploring the outer heliosphere.

"The Voyager mission has opened up our solar system in a way not possible before the Space Age," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It revealed our neighbors in the outer solar system and showed us how much there is to learn and how diverse the bodies are that share the solar system with our own planet Earth."

In December 2004, Voyager 1 began crossing the solar system's final frontier. Called the heliosheath, this turbulent area, approximately 8.7 billion miles from the sun, is where the solar wind slows as it crashes into the thin gas that fills the space between stars. Voyager 2 could reach this boundary later this year, putting both Voyagers on their final leg toward interstellar space.

Each spacecraft carries five fully functioning science instruments that study the solar wind, energetic particles, magnetic fields and radio waves as they cruise through this unexplored region of deep space. The spacecraft are too far from the sun to use solar power.
They run on less than 300 watts, the amount of power needed to light up a bright light bulb. Their long-lived radioisotope thermoelectric generators provide the power.

"The continued operation of these spacecraft and the flow of data to the scientists is a testament to the skills and dedication of the small operations team," said Ed Massey, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Massey oversees a team of nearly a dozen people in the day-to-day Voyager spacecraft
operations.

The Voyagers call home via NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of antennas around the world. The spacecraft are so distant that commands from Earth, traveling at light speed, take 14 hours one-way to reach Voyager 1 and 12 hours to reach Voyager 2. Each Voyager logs approximately 1 million miles per day.

Each of the Voyagers carries a golden record that is a time capsule with greetings, images and sounds from Earth. The records also have directions on how to find Earth if the spacecraft is recovered by something or someone.

NASA's next outer planet exploration mission is New Horizons, which is now well past Jupiter and headed for a historic exploration of the Pluto system in July 2015.

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