As differences between national markets decline, opportunities to transfer technology grow. That is why Cleveland-based TRW, which has owned a German seat-belt maker for 13 years, bought a U.S. seat-belt business .... TRW is betting that Americans will start to wear seat belts more, if only because laws are starting to require it. The company hopes the trend will create a U.S. market for such advances as the "pre-tension" seat belt developed by its Repa G.M.B.H. unit near Stuttgart.
The new belt ... tightens around the wearer just before a crash. A mechanical device senses the car's rapid deceleration and sets off an electronic spark inside the belt's retractor. The spark ignites a tiny explosion that activates a wire cable, snapping the belt taut. TRW has transferred auto technology among national markets before. Its Cam Gears division in England developed rack-and-pinion steering in the 1940s and introduced it to the U.S. (on the Ford Pinto) in 1970. Now Cam Gears, building on U.S. power-steering technology, has developed a power rack-and-pinion system that it says combines precise "road feel" at highway speeds which Europeans demand-with ease of handling at low speeds, which Americans want. "We are aiming at a world-wide market," says D. J. Twiggs, a Cam Gears engineer. "The exchange of technology is increasing to a degree that is now quite dramatic."
- 966 reads
