An air bag may offer additional protection for vehicle occupants when used as a supplemental restraint system in combination with a seat belt system. Despite this important function, there is no way of demonstrating air bag readiness short of actually deploying it because it can be actuated only once. Therefore the air bag should be inherently highly reliable. This paper describes the high- reliability design concept and some considerations in designing the air bag system. Then it discusses the features of an improved air bag based on these design efforts.
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