 |
|
|
|
Draft Australian/ New Zealand Standard for Comment DR 00176 concerns `vehicle frontal protection systems' (VFPS), i.e. bull bars, scrub bars, nudge bars - those controversial things hung on the front of some cars, utes and four wheel drives, particularly in the bush. DR 00176 is a draft standard only, covering vehicles upto 3500kg GVM, although sure to be followed by a genuine standard.
Matters such as performance requirements (i.e. does a bar offer any protection), full frontal crash pulse compliance (relevant to airbag triggers etc.), testing methods, marking & compliance, and pedestrian safety (the big issue) are covered.
The various bars are defined: A `bumper replacement VFPS' [bull bar] is designed to protect against animal strike and replaces the front bumper. An `over bumper VFPS' is mainly to protect against low speed city collisions and the front bumper is retained. A `nudge bar' is mainly designed to protect against low speed car park collisions and as a support for additional driving lights in the form of a light U-shaped tubular bar fitted in front of the front bumper.
The proposal is that all such bars follow the profile of the car or 4x4 and that they slope backwards by at least 10° from the most forward point to the top. Sharp edges, protrusions such as fishing rod holders would be banned. All edges would have a radius of at least 5mm (that's pretty standard right now). The old "Mack" style bull-bar that slopes forward to the top would be banned. 4wd.sofcom.com/4WD.html
A novel feature of the proposed standard, which would benefit buyers, is the effectiveness test. That is effectiveness at protecting the car from an animal strike. You must have seen an old bull bar looking like it would resist any impact while the car deformed and disintegrated around it; that's not effective. The test "animal" is a 63kg polyethylene drum of water. The vehicle is driven into the drum at 40km/h and the deflection of the bar, any contact of the bar with the car's body, and damage recorded.
 Australian plastic  US metal |
The difficult issue with bars (VFPS) is pedestrian safety. A method of testing the effect of an impact of a child's head on any part of a bar more than one metre above the ground is suggested in appendix D. It is quite technical but involves projecting a simulated head (a vinyl covered aluminium sphere) at the hardest point on the VFPS more than one metre above the ground, horizontally, at 30km/h, and measuring the peak acceleration to calculate a `head injury criterion'.
It seems inevitable that there will be increasingly strict standards on bull bars etc., particularly with regard to pedestrian safety. This is the trend in Europe and the UK with coming constraints on the design of the fronts of cars and 4x4s let alone attachments to them. The question is, when?
"Plastic" bars, e.g. right, have been around for a few years and can probably satisfy the proposals, but it will take increasing ingenuity for metal bull-bars to do the same.
The draft standard is available from [www] where you can also "sign up" to be notified of future drafts. [- 7/2001]
Go to the
Offroad
pages
