NEC Automotive Electronics Division & 3M to Work on 'Smart' Air Bag

6 March 2000

NEC Automotive Electronics Division & 3M to Work on 'Smart' Air Bag

    DETROIT--March 6, 2000--NEC Technologies Automotive Electronics Division and 3M will work together on the NEC SeatSentry(TM) Occupant Sensing System, a "smart" air bag system that determines whether there is an adult, a child or something else in the passenger seat of a vehicle. It then causes the air bag to deploy only if there is an adult in the seat. The two major corporations made the announcement today at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) trade show.
    Based on variations in an electrical field in the seat area, the system measures the loading current resulting from the relative amount and relative position of the body mass. Using this information, the passenger airbag can be signaled not to deploy in the case of a baby or a child and allowed to deploy for an adult.
    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed that by 2003, 25 percent of the fleet of new passenger cars and light trucks will have smart air bags in them and that by 2005, all new cars and trucks will have the smart air bags.
    The NEC and 3M relationship brings together NEC's highly regarded technology for occupant sensing and recognized abilities in electronics and 3M's talents in materials science. The goal is to develop easy to install, comfortable and durable antennae sensor assemblies for the wide range of vehicle seats. 3M, using its thin-film, adhesive, die-cut, conductive materials and connector technologies, will design and manufacture the antenna sub-assembly for NEC. To properly integrate the antenna sub-assembly into the seat each seat design will require a customized sub-assembly.
    For more information on the SeatSentry(TM) Occupant Sensing System, contact Patti Miller of NEC Automotive Electronics at 630-467-5365.
    NEC Technologies, Inc. (Automotive Electronics Division) is a leading manufacturer of automotive safety products for the North American automotive market. NEC Technologies headquarters are in Itasca, Illinois. Its U.S. manufacturing plant is in Hillsboro, Oregon and engineering and distribution is in McDonough, Georgia.
    3M is a $15.7 billion diversified manufacturing and technology company with operations in more than 60 countries. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, 3M makes a wide variety of products serving customers in dozens of markets, including industrial, electronic, automotive, telecommunications, health care, transportation safety, consumer and office. 3M is traded on the New York, Chicago, Pacific and Swiss stock exchanges under the symbol MMM. It is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average and also is a component of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at www.3M.com

    (Note to editor: Magazines using reader service numbers for product or literature news announcements should direct all inquiries to Patti Miller of NEC Automotive Electronics at 630-467-5365.)

    3M is a trademark of 3M company. SeatSentry is a trademark of NEC Technologies, Inc