America Needs Car Bumpers That Work!

The SEM (Solid Ejection Material) shock technology does an excellent job of absorbing the Kinetic Energy from vehicle crashes. There is a distinct need to improve automobile crash damage costs because with some vehicle designs it can cost more to insure your car than it takes to fuel it! Check out a recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report (http://www.iihs.org/sr/pdfs/sr4202.pdf) where they tested 17 new model cars in 4 low speed collisions. Three car models actually experienced over $4,500 in damages in a single frontal impact test, with a moderate impact speed of 6.0 mph! One of the impact speeds for our SEM modified test truck was 7.5 mph! And there was no damage delivered to the test truck. By the way a 7.5 mph crash has 50% more Kinetic Energy than a 6.0 mph crash. What do you think the repair costs would be for those 3 test cars if the IIHS used a 7.5 mph crash instead of a mere 6.0 mph? The Auto Industry really needs to improve their cars crash performance and the SEM technology can do that job.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• cars
• crash
• high
• repair
• costs
• lousy
• bumpers
• large
• insurance
• premiums

[q1966]

my old 81 mustang had shock like things hidden behind its front bumper (behind its plastic front grill/bumper cover)

[SEMShocks]

You're right early 80's cars had better bumpers. This was due to a 1980 bumper law that required no damage in 5 mph collisions. In 1983 the impact speed was lowered to 2.5 mph. It's ridiculous that auto companies don't make better bumpers, since the high insurance costs could instead be used to buy gas. Some insurance savings would be like improving the fuel economy by 25% to 50%! So why do auto manufactures ignore their vehicles crash performance? Better bumpers could improve their business!

[spokybob]

Remember the big cars of the late 70's? They had shock absorbing bumpers. Yes, I think repair bills were still high. Were injuries much less?

[SEMShocks]

You're right the late 70's early 80's car models did quite well in the low speed collisions. A 03/01/07 IIHS report ran 4 crash tests on an 81 Ford Escort. It had only $469 in damages but the lowest cost new car got $4,277. Injuries were probably higher with old cars since the airbags have really helped. As to higher speeds, over 35 mph, cars bodies start running out of metal to bend. Whereas SEM shocks can be can be scaled up to do this job, unlike conventional buckling structures.

[Karadjas]

hmm

These would have to be mounted solidly right? As in on the chassis. That's not good. In a collission 1mph faster than what the shocks can take, it will be transferred to the car's crumple zone. Neither fun nor cheap.

[SEMShocks]

True, but if you overload any crash safety system you're going to incur higher costs. Current vehicles incur $1,000 to $5,000 for a 6 mph collision; ours cost less than $100. Also, SEM shocks can be part of the vehicle frame. There's a report that using buckling to do this (Improved Vehicle Crashworthiness Design by Control of the Energy Absorption for Different Collision Situations) but SEM shock will do better job. This does show some people are thinking about those high speed collisions.

[Mojobubba]

Also owned a 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT that in many ways was a piece of crap, but it's platic body panels/bumpers were virtually indestructible. That car lived through 4 accidents with me, none of which required body panel replacement. It was left with almost no trunk space from the last rear-end crash, but still looked great from the outside.

[Mojobubba]

In the early 80's I owned a 1980 Fiat Spyder with shocks in the bumpers. I rearended a friend at a stop sign (unintentionally) going at least 5+ mph. Not only was there no damage on my car, there was none on his either. We were able to "reload" my shocks by the two of us pulling on the bumper. These shocks appear to be disposable. Is that because they are able to withstand a higher impact speed?

[TurboMaria]

PONTIAC MONTANA RULES

[SEMShocks]

As to bumper match up, some auto manufactures are designing SUV bumpers with some lower extensions. Such SEM extensions could address smaller cars under-riding SUVs. But there's a bigger safety problem for vehicles under-riding semitrailers. A website called the Underride Network discusses cars going under semitrailers and the coordinator of the site was good enough to run some SEM shock info. Perhaps someday your next vehicle will have SEM shocks. Again appreciate your input and thoughts.