Faurecia, Ford Motor Co. Win SPE Award for Active Glove Box

AUBURN HILLS, MI -- Dec. 1, 2014: Ford Motor Co. and Faurecia, the world's seventh largest automotive supplier, have won the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE Automotive) Innovation Award in the Safety category as well as the Grand Award for a new injection-molded knee airbag. Called the Active Glove Box, the innovation was designed by Ford for the 2015 Ford Mustang and is produced by Faurecia.

The new airbag design provides inflatable restraint protection in a smaller, lighter package that also enables a roomier interior for added comfort, when compared to traditional knee airbags.

The Active Glove Box is an innovative solution to the traditional, below-the-instrument-panel-mounted knee airbag. The airbag is an injection-molded bolster with an integrated bladder that expands to provide protection similar to traditional knee airbags during a crash. Instead of a fabric airbag, the Active Glove Box integrates the bladder into the glove box door's inner and outer panels. This design provides consumers with more interior space while decreasing vehicle mass, which helps improve fuel efficiency. Additionally, travel distance for the Active Glove Box is less than that of a traditional knee airbag because it is already in position relative to an occupant's knees when it expands.

"We are pleased to share recognition of the Active Glove Box with Ford and are proud of Faurecia's contributions as the component supplier," said Manfred Kwade, president of Faurecia Interior Systems (FIS). "Ford's passion for safety, combined with a desire to offer designers more creative freedom, led to a truly innovative solution that meets the needs of designers and consumers."

Ford has been granted 15 U.S. patents for the component and has several others pending.

Faurecia produces the Active Glove Box in its Saline, Michigan facility.