70 year stories

Did you know that.....Lindblads Autoservice was far from the only company in Sweden that invested in seatbelts in the 1950s and 1960s?

Others were Bröderna Ottoson & Co in Klippan, later known as “Klippangruppen,” which started manufacturing two-point belts for Vattenfall in their saddlery in 1956.

Evert Larsson Industri in Kungälv entered the picture in 1963.

Different companies had tackled the flaws associated with two-point belts (the driver could slide out) with different ideas on three-point belts inspired by the aerospace industry.

This company delivered the actual belts to Volvo when, in 1963, the car company made seatbelts a standard feature throughout their production.

Image: Autoflug in Rellingen, Germany year 1972. Autoflug was later acquired by Autoliv.

Did you know that.....Renault was the first big client for the seatbelts manufactured by Lindblads Autoservice (later Autoliv)?

Lennart Lindblad was tipped off by a former competitor in the automotive retail industry, who also connected the two companies.

Lennart Lindblad went to Stockholm and met with Renault, which later placed a test order for 4,000 seatbelts.

Manufacturing then had to move from Lennart Lindblad’s grandmother’s attic to more suitable facilities.

Image: Lindblads Autoservice in an exhibition for cars, 1962.

Did you know that.....Lennart Lindblad’s first patent was for a rather simple expander bolt?

It could be attached to the car’s B-pillar. With time, more patents and inventions followed.

In 2016, he was awarded the Polhem Prize for his work on developing and refining the seatbelt.

The Polhem Prize is Sweden’s oldest award for technological innovation and is awarded by Engineers of Sweden.

Image: Lennart Lindblad is rewarded the Polhem prize, 2016.

Did you know that.....one of the pioneers in seatbelts was the Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall?

In the early 1950s, the company began to react to the fact that more people were killed in traffic accidents than in occupational accidents. Vattenfall had previously investigated falls from utility poles, which led to them beginning to develop safety gear.  However, as their employees used cars for work purposes, Vattenfall began investigating that as well, which led to the development of a model of the two-point seatbelt “Typ Vattenfall,” which Lindblads Autoservice received a license to manufacture. 

Image: Klippan & Swedish brand Vattenfalls S-Belt, made of terylene. W.d

Did you know that.....Autoliv Inflator, Autoliv’s factory for gas generators in Vårgårda, developed the method of inflating air bags with hydrogen, which is both more environmentally friendly and cheaper than previous technologies?

This new technology would enable material weights to be decreased by 20%.

By filling the airbag with hydrogen and oxygen, which together create a chemical reaction, and compressed inert gas, inflation is as fast as with explosives and the only residual product is a small amount of water.

In other words, there are no ash particles or residual gases, as with other methods.

Image: Modern airbags in the frontseat. W.d.

Did you know that.....the first self-driving car was tried out by Autoliv as early as in the end of the 1990s?

Of course, it had its flaws, but the vision was there.

It took a couple of years, however, until Autoliv seriously began working with the technique that came to be known as “active safety”, i.e., the system that prevents accidents from happening.

Passive safety, on the other hand, refers to the system which protects the passengers in a vehicle in the event of a crash.

Image: Example of passive security for people outside the vehicle. W.d

Did you know that.....Lennart Lindblad’s brother Stig started a new company after they went their separate ways?

The company was called Stil-Industrier (Stil after Stig’s initials) and made metal components for the belts Lennart produced. The brothers worked in close collaboration, and Stig’s work and inventiveness were extremely important for the development of Autoliv. Stig liked taking great risks, while Lennart was more cautious. Their brother Karl-Erik also started working for Stil-Industrier. He had an important role in the company due to his ability to develop new tools needed for production. A fourth brother, Sven-Olof, also worked for the company. Stil-Industrier was the larger of the two companies – which became mutually dependent.

Image: Inside Stil-Industris facilities in Vårgårda. Ca 1970’s.

Did you know that.....the American company Morton ASP constitutes a cornerstone of today’s Autoliv?

The two companies merged in 1997.

Like Autoliv, Morton ASP has a long and exciting history. The company was part of a larger chemical business group, which began manufacturing rocket fuel in the mid-1900s.

With this operation as a foundation, they later commenced the development of airbags – an area of business in which Morton ASP became a pioneer.

Image: Space Shuttle SRB (Shuttle Rocket Booster) from Thiokol, 1977. In 1982, Thiokol merged with Morton and became Morton Thiokol Inc. In 1989 Morton Thiokol split into two companies: Thiokol Inc and Morton.

Did you know that.....in a way, Autoliv’s roots go all the way back to 1937?

This is the year when the aluminum manufacturer Wedaverken was founded. One (presumably) fine day in 1965, the two engineers and inventors Karlsson and Swahn knocked on the door.

They had a background in the aerospace industry and had taken out a patent for a belt retractor (a reeling device for seatbelts), 

In the future, Wedaverken and Autoliv would belong to the same group – Gränges – in which their products complemented each other. 

Image: Gränges Weda’s retractor in 1977.

Did you know that.....Autoliv has its roots in the small town of Vårgårda in Sweden?

Here, the brothers Lennart and Stig Lindbland founded a small auto company in 1953. It didn’t do that well, and the brothers went their separate ways.

Lennart, however, was convinced that he wanted to work as a subcontractor in the car industry and started manufacturing seat belts. It was his concern for his wife’s safety that led Lennart to take an interest in safety belts.

For the first belt he used a neck collar for bulls, which he combined with an industry sewn belt made from the strongest woven nylon from a local weaver.

Image: Lennart (left) & Stig (right) Lindblad, 1978.