There are three main reasons why people buy a seat cover for their car, truck or any other vehicle for that matter.
Maybe it's to afford protection to the seat itself, as some people are in their vehicle for many hours in the day. It could be for comfort, some seat covers provide an extra layer of cushioning and are just made well, which gives you a better ride. For others, they are concerned with the look, the seat covers primarily need to enhance the appearance of their vehicle.
In reality, most people take all three issues into consideration when making their seat cover purchase.
But how many of you think of safety when making your seat cover selection? Many vehicles these days are fitted with side airbags, an important safety feature that has been shown by some studies to reduce the risk of casualties in crashes by 45 per cent. These airbags are designed to protect the vehicle occupants head during a side crash. They have also been noted to offer some protection in a vehicle roll over by forming a cushion between the occupant's head and the window.
So it is of vital importance to ensure any seat cover you choose allows these side airbags to deploy freely. “Normal’ seat covers cannot be fitted in vehicles with integrated side airbags, as they prevent deployment, with the airbags becoming trapped under the seat cover.
Consider how an airbag works. We all know that when there is an accident, the airbags are supposed to fill up with air very quickly. This then provides some cushioning of impact for the vehicle occupant. But for the airbag to deploy quickly, small pieces of electronics called crash sensors are continually monitoring different sets of stimuli, including sudden stopping & increased pressure to tell when the vehicle is in an accident. Accuracy and speed of detection and response are vital.
When the sensors detect an accident, they usually respond with airbag deployment within 25 to 50 milliseconds. If you’d like to think of that in speed over the ground, that is approximately 320 km/h. Now put a seat cover over that seat. Will it have an effect on deployment speed?
You’ll see plenty of seat covers out there being airbag friendly or air bag compatible. At MMT, we wanted to be sure that the design we employ in our air bag compatible seat covers truly do the job. We thought given the reaction times involved in airbags working properly, we would take some of our seat covers and get then certified to see how they really perform. This would not only provide peace of mind to our customers, but to us as well, knowing that the methodology we employ in manufacturing our seat covers really stands up.
We’re happy to say that our seat covers passed the test that involved high speed footage analysis and testing. So we know from independent testing, the products we are sending out to the market is safe.
Before buying seat covers, wouldn’t you like to know that the manufacturer went the extra mile to test the methods they use to put the seat covers together? This means we can safely say in the event of a collision, your seat covers will not hinder airbag deployment.
#problemsolved #mmt
