70 year stories

Did you know that.....even though seatbelts could prevent so many injuries and accidents, many people chose not to use them?

One of the reasons for this was that people felt that seatbelts limited their mobility. For instance, it was difficult to reach the glove compartment while strapped in. These problems led to a new invention – the retractable seatbelt.

In 1964, British Britax and Klippan GmbH (Swedish Klippan Group’s German subsidiary) had already developed a belt with a retractor that was activated when the brakes were applied sharply.

British Kangol had a similar belt tensioner in the works. Around the same time, Nyhems Mekaniska in the Swedish city of Halmstad launched a retractor called Safe.

Image: Klippan & Britax own retractor, year model 1964.

Did you know that.....Autoliv was once part of the international home appliance group Electrolux?

In 1980, Electrolux acquired the entire Gränges Group, which included Autoliv.

But Autoliv was given a very independent role in the group, where the company was a rather odd element.

Image: 9 years later the company arranged an exposition in Europe. Photographer unknown.

Did you know that.....the Hungarian-born engineer and inventor Béla Baréntýi is often called the “father of passive safety”?
He was the first to draw attention to the importance of car structure for crash safety. He came up with the concepts of “deformation zone” (as early as the 1930s), the “collapsible steering column” and the “non-deformable passenger cell,” which all contributed to better protection.

In 1994, Baréntýi was elected to the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Image: Klippan Seatbelt Promotion in Germany, 1965. Klippan was later merged with Autoliv.

Did you know that.....car safety wasn’t really on the agenda in the USA until the 1960s?

In 1965, the young lawyer Ralph Nader published the international bestseller Unsafe at any Speed, which became best known for its criticism of the Chevrolet Corvair.

But Nadar also attacked America’s view on safety as a whole. This attack changed the car companies’ risk assessments, which realized that strict product liability and large fines could be in the pipeline.

The insurance companies also took an interest in the matter. It was said that car accidents cost society $50 billion a year.

In 1966, the US Congress decided to establish a new agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which would take responsibility for the situation.

Image: Pictured is Ralph Nader. W.d.

Did you know that..... Lennart Lindblad sold his company Autoliv to Gränges Weda in 1975?

Gränges Weda was part of the large Gränges Group, which for many years had been a dominant iron ore producer but had by that point evolved into a conglomerate of industries operating in “non-ferrous metals.”

In 1969, Gränges brought Weda into the group through its acquisition of Svenska Metallverken.

Weda manufactured a retractor for seatbelts – the so-called Essem roll – and so Autoliv’s operations became a strategic complement.

Image: The famous ”Essemrullen” retractor, 1967.

Did you know that..... Lennart Lindblad had a pilot’s license and owned an airplane?

On his business trips between Vårgårda and the companies in Germany, he flew the airplane himself.

Interestingly, he’d bought the airplane from the Swedish boxing world champion Ingemar “Ingo” Johansson – who’d won the world title in 1959 after a match against Floyd Patterson.

Image: Lennart Lindblad’s airplane Piper Aztec SE-EOG, 1972.

Did you know that..... Lennart Lindblad changed the name of his company from Lindblad Autoservice to Autoliv in the 1960s?

Yet the word “liv” (English: life) didn’t have anything to do with “life,” as one might think. He had previously used the abbreviation LIV (Lindblad’s in Vårdgårda) in certain marketing.

Image: Autolivs threepointbelt, Ca 1960’s.

Did you know that.....Lennart Lindblad, seeing the risks involved in people sliding under two-point belts, was an early proponent of the three-point seatbelt?

However, Bröderna Ottosson & Co in Klippan applied for a patent for the three-point belt in 1957 and received the go-ahead in 1961. This patent was invalidated in 1965, though, when Lindblads Autoservice was able to show that Saab’s rally cars had used three-point belts prior to Bröderna Ottosson submitting their application.

Image: Klippan and the Ottosson brother’s harness belt, made in 1953. Klippan was later merged with Autoliv.

Did you know that.....the aerospace industry was a pioneer in seatbelts?
Affected by the high numbers of collisions, fatalities and injuries, the responsible agencies initiated serious biomechanical research, for example CIR (Crash Injury Research), at Cornell University north of New York. Here, the first study on seatbelts for pilots was published in 1953.

The findings attracted a lot of attention.

Image: Unknown stuntman participating in Klippan Seatbelt Promotion in Germany, 1966. Klippan was later merged with Autoliv.

Did you know that.....Volvo was a pioneer in introducing seatbelts, especially three-point belts, as a standard feature in its cars?

Nils Bohlin was an engineer at Volvo who developed the seatbelt – but it wasn’t Volvo that came up with the actual concept.

It already existed. The surgeon Stig Lindgren in Falun, who had previously been a medical advisor to the Vattenfall safety team that developed the “Typ Vattenfall” seatbelt, also played an important role in Volvo’s initiative.

As a surgeon, he’d come across many examples of the consequences of traffic accidents.

Volvo, alongside the other Swedish car company, Saab, had a big part in giving Sweden a clear lead in car safety.

Image: Autoliv & Klippans 3 anchorbelts in two models. The Giugiaro line was like Noramale, except for being made of expensive fabric with special modern lines.