This Technical Report describes dummies, procedures, and configurations that can be used to investigate the interactions that occur between a deploying air bag and a Child Restraint System (CRS) that would have been considered properly installed and used in the outer and centre front passenger positions. Static tests may be used to used to sort CRS/air bag interaction on a comparative basis in either an actual or a simulated vehicle environment. Systems that appear to warrant further testing may be subjected to an appropriate dynamic test at a speed near that needed to deploy an air bag or at a higher speed commonly used to evaluate CRS performance. No test matrix is specified at this time for evaluating either a CRS or an air bag during interaction with each other. Instead, engineering judgement based on prior experience with CRS and/or air bag testing should be used in selecting the tests to be conducted with each individual system. Such tests may be aimed not only at producing interactions with the most severe results but also at identifying those conditions that produce the least interaction and/or satisfactory CRS performance results. Baseline tests to indicate the performance of a CRS in the absence of air bag deployment are also recommended for comparison purposes.
Abstract