Fireproof Airbag Fall Protection

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  Rendering of air bag module attached to fire jacket

Inspiration

When coming up with our product, we tried to figure out what were safety issues that more frequently affected firefighters. To get the best insight, we reached out to a family-friend who is a fire chief and gained his opinion on what was a common issue. From such, we were informed that while it was not always a life threatening issue; oftentimes, a fall in an emergency could injure a firefighter no longer permitting them from continuing there work and putting them out of commission for a week or two creating a situation of being short staffed. As such, we sought to prevent these injuries.

What it does

Our product is intended to cushion the fall of any firefighter in a dire situation whenever an uncontrolled descent was detected. There by mitigating any injuries that could inhibit a firefighters ability to adequately perform their duties.

How we built it

Our design, wanting to be something that the firefighter does not have to thing about before entering a fire, relies on modular airbags that can be attached externally to modified fire jackets. It will be monitored through an onboard gyroscope and accelerometer that will detect when an uncontrolled descent is occurring and trigger the activation of the relevant air bag to act as a crash pad and cushion the firefighters descent preventing injury.

By making the design modular, it allows for it to not be an overly expensive endeavor for any fire department that uses it as they would not need to replace an entire jacket, only the singular airbag. Additionally, this would not require any changes to a fire fighters routine before entering the fire as the air bags can be left on the jacket well in advanced not needing to be touched until they have already activated as needed. While also being easy to remove afterwards so that it does not prohibit movement or vision.

Challenges we ran into

A difficulty that we encountered was determining a method of attaching the air bag to the jacket while making it easy to remove with the larger gloves that are required for the extreme environments. Originally we looked at magnetic buckles as they are much easier to trigger with the bigger hands; however, we can to realize that the magnets would demagnetize due to the extreme temperatures that would exist inside a burning building. To rectify this we opted for fasteners made out of stainless steel due to their high heat resistance, along with an external Nomex/Kevlar layer similar to what is used on actual fire jackets to minimize heat absorbance.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we came to be proud of while developing our product is thinking of a solution to a problem that could actually be achieved in a shorter span of time without being an overwhelming cost to fire departments. While there were certainly many other problems to solve, we opted to tackle this issue because the technology to do so is already used in other settings, it simply needed someone to take the initiative to adapt it to a new audience.

What we learned

In designing this product, we were able to better understand the harsh conditions that firefighters undergo along with what standards their equipment must be designed for. Along with gathering a greater understanding of what it takes to make a product that will actually be used without requiring additional work for every job.

What's next for Fireproof Airbag Fall Protection

For future considerations on improvements towards this project, we would like to look into other locations on the body that show necessity without being a hinderance upon being added. Along with researching methods to optimize the storage and deployment angle to make it as minimally inhibiting of movement as possible.

Built With

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