More safety in vehicles with high-performance filament yarns

In modern passenger cars today, an average of 30 to 35 kg of yarn ensures safety and comfort. Airbags play a large part in this: the yarns used are mainly made of polyamide. Due to the ever increasing variety of airbag applications and the ever growing size of the systems, polyester is also often used today, depending on the application requirements and cost/benefit considerations. In addition to high productivity and low energy consumption, the technologies from Oerlikon Barmag score particularly well with their stable production processes. "They meet all the high quality standards for airbags, which – like almost all other textile products in vehicle construction – must guarantee maximum safety for the occupants," confirms Dr. Jen Supra, Technology Manager Technical Yarn at Oerlikon Barmag. "And without any loss of function in any climate, anywhere in the world, for the entire service life of the vehicle."

Seat belts also play a life-saving role in vehicles. They must be able to withstand tensile forces of more than three tons and at the same time stretch in a controlled manner in an emergency to reduce the load in the event of a collision. A seat belt consists of around 300 filament yarns, whose individual high-strength yarn threads are spun from around 100 single filaments. Oerlikon Barmag's patented Single Filament Layer technology ensures a High Tenacity (HT) yarn process that is as sophisticated as it is gentle.