Procon-ten
Encyclopedia
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
Safety Restraint System (SRS), used by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
car manufacturer Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, from 1986 until the mid-1990s.
Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
was one of the last German manufacturers to employ airbag
Airbag
An Airbag is a vehicle safety device. It is an occupant restraint consisting of a flexible envelope designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision, to prevent occupants from striking interior objects such as the steering wheel or a window...
s in their cars, mainly due to the high reliability and cost-effectiveness of the technology they trademarked as "procon-ten".
The procon-ten system used thick cables, similar to winch cables, running around the rear of the engine, and linked to it. In the event of a frontal impact, the force and momentum of the impact would shift the engine rearwards, tensioning and 'pulling' the cables, which were in turn connected to the steering column
Steering column
The automotive steering column is a device intended primarily for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism or transferring the driver's input torque from the steering wheel.-Secondary functions:...
and seat belt
Seat belt
A seat belt or seatbelt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure the occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a sudden stop...
mounts. When the cable was pulled tight by the engine, the cables would pull the steering wheel towards the front of the car, clear of the driver, and also remove any slack in the seat belts, holding the occupants more firmly in their seats until the accident had finished.
Audi engines are by tradition mounted longitudinal
Longitudinal engine
In automotive engineering, a longitudinal engine is an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, front to back....
ly, in front of the front wheels, as opposed to transverse
Transverse engine
A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the long axis of the vehicle. Many modern front wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration...
, with but a few exceptions in more recent models. This meant the engine was close to the front bumper, (especially on 5 cylinder variants) that the radiator
Radiator (engine cooling)
Radiators are used for cooling internal combustion engines, mainly in automobiles but also in piston-engined aircraft, railway locomotives, motorcycles, stationary generating plant or any similar use of such an engine....
often had to be offset to halfway down one side of the engine bay. One advantage of this technique is that the engine is one of the first things to be struck in a frontal impact, taking much of the force, and allowing for high responsiveness of the procon-ten system.
The procon-ten system was available for cars such as the 100 / 200
Audi 100
The restyled C2 Audi 100 was launched in 1976, with an in-line five-cylinder engine...
and the V8
Audi V8
The Audi V8 is a large luxury four-door, five-seat saloon , built by Audi AG at its Neckarsulm plant in Germany from October 1988 to November 1993, as the company's range-topping flagship model...
, as well as the 80 / 90
Audi 80
The Audi 80 is a compact executive car produced by the German car manufacturer Audi, from 1966 to 1996. It shared its platform with the Volkswagen Passat from 1973 to 1986 and was available as a saloon car/sedan, and an Avant...
. It was discontinued in 1994, with the introduction of the new A4
Audi A4
The first generation Audi A4 debuted in 1994, with production starting November 1994. It was built on the Volkswagen Group B5 platform, which it shared with the fourth generation Volkswagen Passat . It had a front-mounted longitudinal engine and front-wheel drive...
and A8
Audi A8
The Audi A8 is a four-door, full-size, luxury sedan car manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi since 1994. Succeeding the Audi V8, the A8 has been offered with front wheel drive or permanent four-wheel drive, with multitronic or tiptronic automatic transmissions — and in short- and...
series, and the 100-based Audi A6, all in 1994, for the 1995 model year.
procon-ten is a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
of Audi AG
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
.
External links
- Safety steering column from the Audi Glossary, mentioning the procon-ten system