Headliner Design Considerations to Meet Safety and Regulations

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Headliners are one of the largest components inside an automobile, stretching from the front windshield to the rear windshield. Besides its aesthetic purpose, it contributes to multiple other purposes like housing different components, helps in NVH, defines the interior roominess, and plays a crucial role in defining the deployment of curtain airbag.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The headliner also plays a role in meeting regulatory requirements like upward visibility and headroom requirements of the occupants. During the deployment of curtain airbag, it is important that the headliner-pillar interface aids in the easy opening of airbag, with the least hindrance. This is defined by multiple factors like the location of headliner-pillar interface, its distance from the airbag ramp bracket, the position of the inflator, the mountings of the headliner and pillar trims, to name a few. Also, during the deployment of the airbag, it is important that parts such as grabhandle, speaker grilles, etc which are fitted on the headliner does not get detached or break off, which in turn can be dangerous to the occupants. The design of pillar trims and the ramp bracket also plays a critical role in ensuring that the pillar trim edges are secure during the airbag deployment, and aid in the easy release of airbag into the cabin.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">Incorrect design of headliner or pillar trim, can result in different problems such as improper airbag deployment, airbag getting struck between pillar trim to body, fly-off of headliner child parts, etc. This would also result in several iterations of design which is a waste of time and resources.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In this paper, we cover various design aspects of headliner assembly to meet the safety and regulations and have an improved deployment of curtain airbag. By considering the design aspects upfront, we were able to save at least two iterations of air bag deployment and quicken the development time by four months.</div></div>