What are Seatbelts and How To Upcycle Them Into Bags?

A seatbelt (or safety belt) is a vehicle safety device designed to protect all occupants of a vehicle from the risk of death or injury that can result from a collision or sudden stop.

It reduces the force of secondary impacts with interior collision risks, keeping occupants properly positioned for maximum airbag effectiveness and preventing occupants from being ejected from the vehicle, hitting or even going through the windshield in the event of a collision or vehicle rollover. This is because the driver and passengers travel at the same speed as the vehicle when it is in motion, and continue at the same speed as the vehicle was traveling before when it stops or crashes.

3-point seatbelt, the car solution since the 1960's

The seatbelt has a long history of inventions and patents by different disciplines in different means of transport: trains, planes, automobiles.

The first seatbelt was invented in 1840 by George Cayley, an English aeronautical engineer, for use in trains. But the first patent was granted much later to Edward J Claghorn, in 1885. The first car seatbelt was spotted in 1902 in a Baker "Torpedo", and the first patents for car seatbelts were filed a year later in France by Louis Renault and Gustave-Désiré Leveau.

In 1911, Benjamin Fabulous made an invention for the airplane seat belt that was implemented in all WWII airplanes. The first documented use of an airplane seatbelt was by French pilot Célestin Adolphe Pégoud, the second person who could make a continuous loop. In 1949, American car manufacturer Nash began offering seatbelts to consumers and they were fitted as an option on some Ford models for the first time in 1955.

In 1951, American engineers Roger Grisworld and Hugh de Haven designed what is now the modern seat belt, an early three-point seatbelt restraining the chest and lap – with however the buckle remaining in the middle. They patented it in 1955.

Top right: Hugh de Haven

A great contribution to automobile safety was invented by a neurologist, Dr. C Hunter Shelden. After seeing an increase in head injuries in his emergency room, he came up with the idea for a retractable seatbelt, which was published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 1955. The results of the US Congress in 1959 had laid down legislation obliging all automobiles to conform to this idea.

In 1958, the Swedish company Saab was the first to install standard seat belts, but they were 2-point belts that simply restrained the chest. In 1959, Vattenfall in Sweden, which owned many company cars, investigated the contributing factor to excessive fatal injuries to car passengers and presented it to Swedish car manufacturer Volvo. As a conclusion of these studies, a 3-point seat belt was introduced by the Swedish Nils Bohlin, Volvo's very first safety engineer, who previously worked for the aircraft manufacturer Saab.

The seat belt was fastened through the occupant's hip rather than across the abdomen to prevent internal abdominal injury. This 3-point seat belt is still in use today.

Top left: early 50’s
Top right: mid 50’s
Bottom left: a seatbelt test apparatus with a crash test dummy
Bottom right: Nils Bohlin

Although the invention of the seatbelt goes back a long way, the installation and adaptation took time, even when the lifesaving function was proven. The introduction of a mandatory seatbelt law differs from country to country, and even today there are still different laws.

• Australia – front seats 1970 (Victoria); 1972 (national)
• France – front seats 1973 (outside cities); 1975 (cities at night); 1979 (all); rear seats 1990
• Finland – front seats 1975; rear seats 1987
• Sweden – front seats 1975; rear seats 1986
• Spain – front seats 1975
• Netherlands – front seats 1976; rear seats 1992
• Germany – front seats 1976; rear seats 1984
• United Kingdom – front seats 1983; rear seats 1991
• USA – front seats 1984
• Italy – front seats 1989; rear seats 1990

As it is now widely accepted that seat belts save lives, it is hard to imagine that resistance to these life-saving devices has long been the "norm". Drivers and passengers complained that the seat belts were uncomfortable and restrictive; but the uproar over mandatory seat-belt laws was mostly ideological. The battle over seat belt laws reflected widespread criticism of government regulation in a free society.

But even today, as shown on the map above, not everyone follows the rules.

The seatbelt webbing is the part in contact with the passengers of a car, the part that runs across one’s body, round the waist and chest – a woven narrow fabric strap made from filament yarns or high tensile filament yarn.

At present, seatbelts used in cars are three-point seatbelts (as described further above under “Who invented seatbelts?”) with a single continuous length of webbing.

Seatbelt material today is usually woven from 100% polyester. Nylon used to be the most popular material, but nylon stretches more than polyester and is more prone to wear and tear.

Research has also found that less-energized yarns create more longer lasting seatbelts because the threads can pack together more closely.

Weaving of the seatbelts is called webbing. The original seatbelt webbing was originally woven on shuttle looms, which could only weave about 200 picks per minute.

Since 1975, most straps have been made on needle looms, which could reach 1000 picks per minute. Modern looms can weave up to 3000 picks per minute. Typically, seatbelt webbing has about 300 warp threads per 46mm belt, which works out to nearly 150 ends per inch.

The original colour of the seat belts is white before being dyed at the factory after weaving.

Polyester can be dyed to most shades and has excellent colour fastness. Many suppliers offer seatbelts in different colours on the market. The dyeing machine used for it is automatic flatbed dyeing printing equipment, high efficiency continuous dyeing system (pad steam).

The dyeing machine is specially used for automotive double-ended seat belt webbing with European standard requirements, with elongation and relative calendar function.

Although straps and belts can be ordered in any width today, car seatbelts are woven to international standard widths and are 46-49mm wide; most are 47 mm (1.85 inches). Seatbelts are often described as being "two inches" (50.8 mm) in size but are not actually woven to this width. Seatbelts are woven from about 300 ‘warp’ strands and one ‘weft’ strand.

There are three weaving variations, each with a different structure:

A/ Plain weave (tabby weave) – this is the simplest type and is formed by interweaving of warp and weft yarns vertically.
B/ Twill weave – it is woven in a pattern called a herringbone weave where the lines run diagonally from the centre line.
C/ Satin weave – this is the most traditional and comes with one or more panel straps (striped effect). 5- and 7-panel webbings are the most common. Other typical webbings are 11- and 12-panel (special cars) and 3- and 4-panel (old cars).

The seatbelt has long been the most important passenger restraint system. It must comply with multiple stringent requirements. Its test is described in detail in the UN/ECE-R16 regulation. In addition to various prerequisites for the belt (placement, humidity, temperature, light, drive, etc.), the test must be carried out on a test machine according to very strict specifications. In addition to the maximum force at break, values such as the transverse strain under load are calculated. ZwickRoell testing systems are also used to determine the strength of the produced seat belt system (with and without the seat belt lock).

Seatbelt test machine.

There are two forms of discarded seatbelts for upcycling purposes:

1.New seatbelt materials that are discarded at the factory and would otherwise end up in landfill. Since the lengths of new scrapped seat belt sections are quite large, it is usually possible to find enough material to make an entire product in a single colour shade with a single woven structure seat belt. eKodoKi RE-BELT bags are made from these new discarded seat belts.

2.End-of-life used car seatbelts. Used seatbelts are easy to find, from car wrecks and piles of end-of-life cars. On average, an auto recycler landfills over 270 kilograms of seat belts each month. Each car produces four seat belts, each belt is about 2.2 meters long. The disadvantages are that they have to be washed harshly, and it is difficult to make an entire product in one single colour in one single weaving structure.

Upcycling represents a variety of processes by which reclaimed “old” products are modified and given a second life, by being transformed into a “new” product. In this way, thanks to the mix and aggregation of the materials, components and articles used, the final result is a "new product" with more value than the initial value of the sum of all its components. In other cases, upcycling concerns materials or objects that can be re-adapted and/or re-purposed in creative ways, and therefore have a longer lifespan.

The benefits of upcycling, in a nutshell:

• It stops adding stuff to a world already overwhelmed with things.
• It reuses materials that may end up in the landfill.
• It requires creativity, freshness, and innovative ways of thinking.
• It brings beauty to the world.

Some examples of products that have been upcycled into other products:
• Wood pallets turned into a garden sofa.
• A silver fork transformed into a bracelet.
• Numerous plastic spoons used as components to make a lamp shade.

Recycling is the process of recovering material from waste and turning it into new products. The original product is destroyed in this process, usually through a melting process, but it used to form new products. Examples are aluminium cans, plastic water bottles, most food tubs, bottles, cans, etc.

Upcycling is a form of recycling. It is a technique of upgrading and adding value to a product or material that may otherwise be discarded. Upcycling means to use a certain material again, but in a manner different than what it was originally intended for. The original product is left mostly intact, utilizing its shape, form, and material for a different purpose.

Both help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills that can take thousands of years to decompose and help preserve our natural resources and reduce pollution.

Seatbelts are one of the most wasted materials in the world. The large-scale production of cars, together with the high quality standards, lead to such huge waste. Millions of yards of seatbelt webbing are discarded by car manufacturers every year. For years, these were simply dumped in landfills. In many countries, what is allowed to be disposed of in landfills has been tightened. Automotive seat belt manufacturers need other outlets for these excess straps they have accumulated.

eKodoKi's rejected seat belts come from a manufacturer in Malaysia, in the same country than the bags are produced, to keep transport distances as short as possible. These materials are not given but purchased.

Seatbelts are delivered in randomly unrolled bundles in large bags; typically, these are filled with a mix of weaving structures and a mix of colours. It is not possible to request specific variants.