Talking Safety, Part 1

Safety Walkaround: Exterior and Chassis

 

Zone Body Construction

Zone Body Construction incorporates front and rear crushable zones and a reinforced occupant zone to help protect occupants in the event of a crash.

In Zone Body Construction, the body is divided into front, passenger, and rear zones. Each zone serves a different purpose. The passenger compartment is the reinforced, protected zone, designed to protect occupants.

The front and rear crumple zones are parts of the body and chassis that are designed to deform during a crash. As they crumple, they help absorb the energy of the crash before it reaches the passenger compartment.

Think of it as a vase surrounded by bubble wrap and placed in a cardboard box. If you drop it, what happens to the package? The box and the bubble wrap take the hit and the vase stays protected.

 

High-strength side-door guard beams

Guard beams help protect occupants in the event of certain side impacts.

Each side door has a guard beam that helps to keep the occupant safe during a side impact.

The beams are something like the guard rails you see alongside the road. Just as guard rails are designed to prevent a vehicle from leaving the road, side-door guard beams are designed to help prevent another vehicle from entering the passenger compartment.

 

Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

A warning light alerts the driver if low pressure is detected in any tire. Monitoring tire pressure helps prevent uneven tire wear and reduces the risk of tire damage.

If a tire loses pressure, it can’t support the vehicle’s weight properly during cornering or loaded conditions. The tire might have a slow leak and be on its way to a flat, which can lead to an inconvenient or dangerous situation. To help prevent this happening, the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) warns the driver if the air pressure gets low in any tire.

Each tire has a pressure sensor in the tire stem. If any one tire gets low, a TPMS warning light goes on in the instrument panel. On some models, the Vehicle Information System can tell you exactly which tire is low, and what the pressure is in each individual tire.

The TPMS warning light is a lot like the low fuel warning light. When it goes on, the owner needs to stop and fill up.

TPMS can also help owners save money — because tires will last longer, and fuel economy can be better, when tires are kept at the recommended pressure.

Sometimes, owners don’t understand the effect of cold weather on tire pressure.  When the weather turns cold, especially on a cold morning when the vehicle has been sitting overnight, tire pressure often drops below the specified pressure and the TPMS warning light comes on. The TPMS warning light doesn’t mean that the vehicle needs to come back to the dealership. It’s just telling the driver that they need to check and correct the tire pressure to the specification shown on the tire pressure label.

Safety Walkaround: Engine Compartment

 

 

Hood deformation point

Creases in the reinforcement structure allow the hood to buckle at a predetermined point, helping protect the passenger compartment.

 

There are places along the edge of the hood where it is designed to deform, or bend, during a frontal crash. The energy that is absorbed in making the hood bend is energy that won’t reach the passenger compartment.

After a crash, the hood may look like an accordion, but that’s the idea. It’s designed that way to help protect the vehicle occupants.

 

Hood safety stops

Anchor points on the cowl restrict the rearward movement of the hood in the event of a frontal collision and help prevent the hood from entering the passenger compartment.

 

Even when the hood buckles during a crash, it’s being shoved to the rear. You don’t want the rear edge of the hood to enter the passenger compartment, so Infiniti provides hood safety stops — anchor points on the cowl that help keep the hood from moving too far to the rear and entering the passenger compartment.

They are similar to door stops that keep a door handle from banging into the wall behind it.

 

Break-away rear engine mount

The break-away rear engine mount helps the engine drop down and away from the passenger compartment in the event of a serious frontal impact.

 

Another component that could enter into the passenger compartment during a frontal impact is the engine. The engine is big and heavy — it’s not going to crumple, and it can’t easily be stopped from moving. So, if the crash is really serious, the rear engine mount is designed to break away. That lets the rear of the engine drop down, so it doesn’t go straight into the passenger compartment.

Rear-wheel, 4-wheel, and all-wheel drive models also have a collapsible propeller shaft that is designed to collapse, or crumple, during a serious crash. This helps keep it from coming up into the passenger compartment. It looks a little bit like the inner core from a roll of paper towels.

 

The Big Picture

These features are just a beginning.

Keep in mind that the individual safety features described here are part of a larger concept. They all play a role in Safety Shield, Infiniti’s comprehensive approach to safety. Safety Shield describes the safety benefits of vehicle features by their relationship to six stages of driving — normal driving, risk appears, crash may occur, crash is unavoidable, crash, and post-crash.

In the second part of our series we will explain safety features that can help drivers avoid crashes.