‘AUTO SAFETY Volvo C70: Safety ‘ou only have to spend a few minutes with Volvo's safety engineers to appreciate why the automaker waited more than half a century before building only the third production convertible in the company’s his tory—the C70, The strength and energy absorption ability of a car's roof are critical to ‘maintaining the integrity of the passenger compartment. From the beginning we said if Volvo is to make an open car, it must be safe,” says Stephan Ryrberg, who heads up Volvo's Safety Centre in Gothenberg, Sweden. A mechanical engineer, he has been actively involved in developing automobile safety systems at Volvo for more than a decade. To compensate for the lack of a roof, Volvo engineers redesigned the entire body structure, reinforcing the doors, door sills, and the lower B-pillars. The car’s unique rollover protection system features a pair of roll bars concealed behind the rear seats that automatically deploy within 0.2 sec, sturdy A-pillars that double as roll bars, and crash-sensor- activated pyrotechnical pretensioners on the seat belts, Body makeover. Thie abe over one’s head is of obviou: rollover situation, which we'll get to later. But what many people may not realize is that a car roof plays an essential role in helping to distribute the energy in a dents of all kinds. “Collision energy is transmitted mainly along load paths con- sisting of the upper and lower side mem bers and sideframe, as well as the sub- frame and the roof,” Rytberg explains In a hard-top car (see diagram, next page), the forces in a frontal collision travel along the upper side members to the Acpillars, which distribute them to eof a roof, KAREN AUGUSTON FIELD, © desien Nens/5-3-99 These engineers aren't modest. The redesigned body, they say, pop-up roll bars, even pyrotechnics, make the C70 the safest convertible on the road Volvo's rollover protection system ett tensioner Boron ste! ‘eiores Apia Atoratic ralover bars \ —T \ contol unt Bot tensioner The many unique safety features that make up the rollover protection system (ROPS) onthe C70 convertible ‘compensate for the absence of the roof and also towards the rear— through the side doors tothe B-pillars, In a rear-end collision, the load path is mainly through the C-pillars to the roof and roof rails. Obviously, the elimination of any of these paths means that the energy must go somewhere else, It all makes sense when you consider that an automobile’ www. designnews .com MANAGING oot overhead. body structure is basically a truss. This strong, rigid framework of beams is designed to withstand both low and high energy collisions, But take away even ‘one component, and the entire structure is compromised. To compensate for the missing ele ‘ments in the C70, Volvo engineers rein. forced the doors, door sills, and the EDITORrae Seg CO an Len ee lower B-pillars. By using boron steel engineers were able to get stronger sec tions without adding to the weight of the pillars or increasing their size. To make up for the loss of the load-dissipating ability of the B-post, engineers also reinforced the horseshoe-shaped rear body structure, So effective are these design changes, claims Volvo, that the C70 is comparable to the hard-top Volvo $70 in front, side, But what about and rear collisions rollover situations? Restraining orders. With no roof over head, figuring out how to protect occu. Panis in a rollover situation was no small task. Ryrberg says that Volvo engineers had two primary desig Keep all occupants in the car—and keep them safe, Key tothe car's rollover prot tem is a pair of spring-loaded, steel rollover bars (actually, they're hoop: shaped), concealed behind the rear-seat head restraints. These automatically deploy at lightening speed (0.2 ms), when sensors detect high acceleration forces goals: ction sys- a) Cs Load paths: Where the collision forces go Harstep {na hardtop car, (op) the forces ina frontal collision travel along the upper side ‘members tothe A-pillar, Which distributes them to the rot, Designers of con- Vertibles must compensate forthe missing ‘members by reinforcing the doors, sills, and lower B-pilrs Volvo also reinforced the horseshoe-shaped rear body structure Desin News/5-3-99and an unacceptable vehicle pitch. Detecting the latter is not as easy as it sounds, because a car can overturn in vit~ In. tually any direction and rollovers are w fen preceded by free-flight, Engineers finally settled on a combination of three sensing elements. Two “spirit level” sen- sors—essentially glass tubes filled with liquid and containing a small air bubble— fare mounted at different angles and dif ferent locations. can be determined by measuring the amount of light passing through as the bubble moves from one side to the other: A third sensor element, consisting of ‘simple, spring-suspended mass, detects vehicle position in free-flight situations involving slow rotations Engineers also reinforced the A-pillars so they could double as rollover bars at the front of the car. They did this by increasing their overall cross-section and adding tubular inserts that are extremely strong in axial compression. So robust are the pillars now, says Volvo enginecrs, that they exceed the U.S. Federal Motor Vehi: cle erush resistance standard. In order to further restrain the occu- pants in a rollover situation, engineers Link, coil spring entlated di with a pretensiont belt reel powder charg pants in a rollo With the entire design. C70 shines on rainy days Riding around in a convertible in 35C weather is about as fun as it looks. By swaddling myself in enough bulky clothes, turrr ing the heater (and heated seats) on ful blast, and keeping the ‘windows rolled up, | was able to tolerate what in my mind were: [Arcticlike conditions. It was unfortunate thet the C70's very UnVolvolike looks ate so attention grabbing. For the entire ‘rive, | was uncomfortably aware of how foolish | looked, mis: ‘erably huddled behind the wheel of such a great-looking cat. ‘Wintry temperatures weren't what Volvo had in mind when it invited the press to test drive the G70 in Phoenix Nonetheless, | did get a chance to drive it in the kind of con- ditions in which a car's performance really matters to me: ‘ain, fog, and yes, aven snow, in the hills outside of town. I'm 1 big fan of front-wheel drive, and with the added help of the fow-speed traction control system, the car handled beauti- fully, even on wet, slippery roads. ‘Extreme variations in the weather ave us several reasons 10, raise and lower the convertible top—a couple of times we did it just for the heck of it, because it’s fun to watch. An electro- ‘mechanical actuator (including five separate motors) makes for 5 quick open/close cycle. During one hasty stop at the side of the road we even timed it 10 seconds later, we Nad a roof aver ‘our heads end were raring to 0. ‘Should the electronics fall, the roof can be raised manually with a handeerank. I'm skeptical of Volvo's claim that the proce ‘dure takes no more than five minutes, but maybe they are talk- @ desien tews/5-3.99 aoe The vehicle's attitude ae also equipped each three-point se j located next to the Activated by pyrotechnics (a in this case) when rapid deceleration is detected, the pretensioner automatically takes up the slack in the belt. Peak loads to the body are reduced the occupant, in eff deceleration of the vehicle. In many cases, it is the strength of the structure that protects the occ Ryrberg concludes. it is the strength of our PoNeir es Ser tat macy ee ear belt 1, to the | Didyortg wisaice wl? | itso, letus know. Cirle No. 628 i's great withthe top down, but the C70 is also a trooper on rainy days when the roads are slick. Ing about people who are more mechanically inclined than me. ‘Even at high speeds, the C70 Is surprisingly quiet for a convertible, particularly with the detachable windscreen in place. All the better to enjoy the stereo system (400W-amp, [0 speakers, in-dash CD changer), which is awesome for @ standard package. ‘Although Volvo has completely sold me on the looks, feel, ‘and safety features of the C70, in the end | have to admit I'd rather have the sedan version—it has a permanent steel Structure overhead to protect my cranium. Call me boring. Or maybe I'm just worried about figuring out how to use that hand-crank if the top ever gets stuck in a down position. “Karen Auguston Field