Hydraulic Damper - Iteration I

Here's the pitch

This design changes the 3 point seat belt system into a dynamic mechanism. The buckle will be attached to the shock absorber as seen on the right. Inside the shock absorber there is a hydraulic fluid that will move form the inner to the outer barrel through a series of variable flow control ports. Typically there is a condensed gas such as nitrogen to ensure that only fluid remains inside the piston because should air enter the piston the air would destroy the piston. The way this design will reduce G forces on the body, is when the seat belt locks and the bodies momentum is still moving, the strain on the seat belt will engage the shock absorber. The hydraulic fluid offers a certain resistance based on its viscosity as the piston and rod moves into an elongated position. There are two unique components to this design. The variable flow control ports will be opened or closed base on the weight of the passenger. The way the design works now, is there is a dial that moves a piston over a certain amount of ports, thus changing the force needed to force fluid out of the ports. We chose this idea because it will move both the lap and body belt. The body belt will lock in place and keep the person upright which will be beneficial when being struck by the airbag because the impact force will be distributed over a larger and stronger area of the body. As illustrate, the shock absorber is spring loaded so that it can be used in every event of sudden deceleration. The spring will automatically reset the shock absorber to its original compressed position. This way there is no required maintenance every time it is activated.

This video provides an animation to the twin tube shock absorber this design is modeled after