Nils Bohlin

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Three-point belt

Nils Ivar Bohlin (born July 17, 1920 in Härnösand , † September 21, 2002 in Ramfall, municipality of Ydre ) was a Swedish flight engineer and inventor of the three-point seat belt .

Bohlin, who graduated from Härnösand High School in mechanical engineering in 1939 , had been employed in Saab's aircraft department since 1942 , where he worked on the development of ejector seats for supersonic aircraft . In 1958 he was recruited by the car manufacturer Volvo . The then Volvo boss Gunnar Engellau planned the entry of his company into the US market and wanted to make the safety of the cars a main argument. Engellau hired Bohlin because he saw great similarities between car drivers involved in an accident and an ejection seat. Bohlin became Volvo's first safety engineer.

During his work, Nils Bohlin recognized the extraordinary forces to which the human body is exposed in a traffic accident at high speeds. At the same time he also realized that the previous seat belts were limited in their effectiveness and that they were also uncomfortable and impractical. After a year of development work , Bohlin was able to present his result: a belt that runs from the B-pillar of the car over the driver's pelvis to a buckle on the center tunnel of the car and from there over the chest and shoulder back to the B-pillar. Volvo had the development patented in the USA , and in 1959 the Volvo Amazon and the Volvo PV544 were the first cars in the world to be fitted with the three-point seat belt as standard.

Bohlin has received numerous prizes for his invention, which is now standard (and mandatory in many countries) in all automobiles in a further developed form. In 1985 the German Patent Office chose the three-point seat belt as one of the eight inventions that have brought mankind the greatest benefit over the past 100 years. In 1995 Bohlin received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering . In 1999 he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame .

In 1985 Bohlin retired and moved to Ramfall near Tranås . After a stroke in May 2002, he died on September 21, 2002 of complications from a heart attack . On the day of his death, Bohlin was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron , Ohio . His two step-sons Gunnar and Håkan Örnmark, who accepted the award on behalf of the USA , were surprised by the news of his death. In addition to his wife Maj-Britt and the two step-sons, Bohlin left three other biological children, eleven grandchildren and one great-grandson. In 2006, Nils Bohlin was inducted into the European Automotive Hall of Fame .

Sources and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inventor: Ivar Bohlin Nils, owner: Aktiebolaget Volvo: Safety belt . US3043625 A, July 10, 1962 ( google.ch ).
personal data
SURNAME Bohlin, Nils
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bohlin, Nils Ivar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 17th July 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Harnösand
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 2002
Place of death Ramfall