Car Crash Tests of Ejection Reduction by Glass-Plastic Side Glazing 851203

1983 ejection statistics are reviewed; half of the passenger car ejections, some 36,000 people of whom 5,346 died, are through glazing areas. Previous work has shown the remarkable strength of thin plastic coatings, developed for windshield anti-laceration applications, when applied to the inside of tempered glass side windows, in reducing ejection. In the present work, two tests were made, each with the NHTSA Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB) at 39 mph and all four wheels turned at 26 degrees, striking a stationary Volkswagen Rabbit in a perpendicular impact. The Alfred I. DuPont de Nemours Company provided the plastic coating on tempered glass side windows. The plastic layer extended beyond the sides and top of the glass to be wrapped around steel strips bolted to the window frame. On vehicle impact, the tempered glass broke, but the pieces were held in place by the plastic layer, which then deformed outward as a “safety net” with head contact. In the first test, with a low and short striking vehicle hood line simulation, the top of the door bent out as the bottom was pushed in, and the head bulged the glazing out to hit the elevated base plate of the MDB, although the “safety net” held. In the second test, with a more typical vehicle hood line effect simulation, the “safety net” again held, giving a HIC of 616. A window design to allow window up and down motion with the plastic layer movably secured with a “T edge” in the window channel is under construction. An eight inch sphere Glazing Test Device is being developed, with a skin simulation / chamois coat on the lower hemisphere for laceration measurement, accelerometers for Head Injury Criterion (HIC) measurement, and a weight variable from 10 to 20 to 40 pounds, for ejection reduction measurement.

This paper presents the views of the authors, and not necessarily those of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The numbers in parentheses are the references, listed at the end of the paper.

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Henry H. Wakeland, late of the National Transportation Board, who was instrumental through his work in New York in establishing government efforts to build experimental safety cars, and to the memory of William Haddon, Jr., M.D., late of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, who taught the world that automobile safety is one of the most important areas of preventive medicine, and that cars could be built, passively, not to harm. Both of these giants of automobile safety research died in early 1985.