Hey Toby---I recently attended I-CAR’s Advanced Metals class and found the class interesting, but too scientific. I have also read a couple of articles in Autobody News on the same subject, but again, it’s complicated. Could you possibly shed a different light on this subject and make it a little easier to understand?
---Not Albert Einstein from Los Angeles

Hey Not Albert---I felt the same way as you did the first time is took the SPS 07. Furthermore, I teach the class and still find it a little difficult to comprehend, but it is getting better (the more I read, the better I get). I will try and give you a different perspective on this subject that might be easier to understand.
    To begin, we need to look at vehicle construction and how collision energy flows through a vehicle.
    First, a vehicle is divided into 3 sections: the end, the passenger compartment, and the rear section. The ultimate goal of vehicle design is to protect the vehicle’s occupants when a vehicle is in an accident. In I-CAR’s VLV 01 (Introduction to Volvo), a Volvo station wagon is crashed into a barrier at 35 MPH (Damage is to left front). The front bumper, headlamp, left lower rail, and apron are destroyed. The air bags are deployed and the front windshield is cracked and yet with all this damage, the left front door can be opened and closed with ease. This crash is a classic demonstration of energy absorption. In other words, as the vehicle front structure was being crushed and deformed, the collision energy was bleeding off as it traveled through the sheet metal.
    Energy absorption is the process of dissipating collision energy resulting from a frontal and rear impact. Energy absorption is achieved through the deformation of the metal. In other words, as the metal is being damaged, the collision energy traveling through it is being dissipated. Front inner structure can be reduced 45 percent in length, but only a 2 percent reduction in length occurs in the passenger’s section. Whoa!! That’s amazing. Let’s take a look at how energy absorption is achieved.
    New car design is achieving energy absorption by a number of methods. First and foremost is the use of crush zones, convolutions, slots and holes in construction of the front and rear inner structures. When a front or rear collision occur, collision energy is moving through the parts and when it reaches a crush zone (acting like a barrier), the energy starts to slow down. Think of a car coasting down a street. If the car stays in the center of the street, the car will maintain or gain in speed (depending on slope of the street). Let’s say that the car as it is going down the street, keeps crashing into the curb or wheels are continuously rubbing against the curb, the vehicle will slow down or stop. I know this a crude example, but I think you can get the point. The other type of energy that we need to look at is energy transfer.