TN students develop shock absorbent bumpers

In general, bumpers do not absorb the force of the impact in case of the vehicles collides with something; in such cases, the entire impact is transmitted to the passenger cabin. The cellular bumper, however, is expected to perform 200 times better than the usual ones, claimed the makers.

“Even though many safety devices such as crumple zone, air bag, collision sensors are available, they cannot absorb the impact energy as well as this bumper can,” project leader Ankit Kumar told DTNext. 

“Product testing was performed at ARAI Pune, a semi-government authorised test facility for certifying automobiles,” he added. According to Kumar, the test results proved that an increase of 219% crash energy absorption was achieved in terms of the cellular bumper as compared to the regular ones. “Hence, it can protect the occupants against fatal accidents much better than ordinary bumpers,” he added.

Stating that the cellular structures have an attractive combination of physical and mechanical properties and are being increasingly used in modern engineering applications, Kumar said that they can be used as crash absorbents due to their high capacity to absorb impact energy. “During the impact, the inter-cellular walls buckle and collapse which results in impact energy absorption through deformation,” the project leader said. 

“Additionally, a layer of silicone rubbers is sandwiched between the cellular panels. This terminates large amount of shocks and vibrations. Thus, the passengers may feel only a tiny part of the impact,” added Kumar. He also said that the cellular bumper would cost about Rs 2,500 when it hits the market. 

Ankit along with his four partners won an award for their product in the international competition ‘Valeo Innovation Challenge 2017’ — ‘Technological Innovation’ where 1,628 teams from 748 universities in 80 countries had participated.