Smashingly simple

A simple but clever idea by a Bath engineer could revolutionise the way that safety devices are constructed.

Dr. Fayek Osman’s new concept could mean that devices such as train buffers, safety barriers and aircraft undercarriages will be much more efficient and cheaper.

Dr. Osman, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Bath, UK, has developed a concept for devices that can absorb enormous impact and yet still remain intact so that they can be used again.

Normally the impact of a crash on a safety device such as a train buffer will deform it so that it cannot be used again and must be replaced. Even ordinary stress on devices that absorb less dramatic impacts, such as aeroplane undercarriages, can wear them out quickly.

Dr. Osman’s idea is that safety devices should be as simple as a piece of metal in a channel with a bend in it. During a crash, impact forces the metal down the channel, and the energy of the crash is absorbed by the metal as it travels around the bend towards the end of the channel.