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2005 Mercury Montego Safety

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Safety

"Safety is a critical consideration when you’re creating a confident driving experience. Our safety team has been involved in the design of the new Mercury Montego right from the start of the program. We built on best practices from throughout the company, including Volvo, and confirmed the engineering with extensive computer modeling and crash testing. We feel these will be among the safest vehicles on the road."

– Chris O’Connor, Crash Safety Supervisor

Raising Bar on Occupant Protection

The 2005 Mercury Montego raises the bar on vehicle safety. The all-new sedan incorporates Ford Motor Company’s industry-leading Personal Safety System™, which in the Montego adds new features that address front-, side- and rear-impact protection and borrows other best practices from Volvo.

In addition, Montego offers Ford’s innovative Safety Canopy™, which provides head protection for occupants in side-impact and rollover situations.

When equipped with optional side air bags and Safety Canopy, Montego is expected to earn top crash-test ratings. These independent tests won’t be conducted until after Montego reaches U.S. showrooms.

Montego also is expected to meet the stringent new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208, which governs front-impact protection for variously sized occupants, whether belted, unbelted or out of position. Montego also is expected to meet even-tougher future standards for rear impacts.

Among Montego’s safety features are:

Front, side and rear structural elements also were designed with crash safety in mind. In each case, safety engineers balanced the need for structural strength to safeguard the passenger compartment against intrusion with the need for collapsible elements that absorb energy and reduce the overall crash "pulse" that ultimately reaches vehicle occupants.

The front structural elements of the new Mercury Montego incorporate a "tripod" design that channels frontal crash forces upward and downward into a high-strength steel "ring" of protection surrounding the passenger compartment.

The structure begins with two octagonal frame rails and shotgun-style structures near the top of the wheel wells. These two elements are tied together with steel bracing. The front of the frame rails is engineered with failure points for an energy-absorbing, controlled collapse during impact.

Laser welding creates varying thicknesses within the front frame rails, providing strength and rigidity toward the rear to support the suspension and controlled deformation at the front in a collision. Energy not absorbed by these structures is directed through the "tripod" around the passenger compartment.

Like other elements of the vehicle’s design, many structural components are engineered to do more than one job. For example, the strong roof brace that connects the B-pillars is a key to providing occupant protection in side impacts, as well as offering support in the event of a rollover. It also contributes to overall vehicle stiffness for a smooth, quiet ride.

Patent Pending on Innovative Bumper Plate Design

One innovation made possible by sophisticated computer crash modeling is the shape of the front bumper plate – the steel mounting point for the front bumper. Ford Motor Company has applied for a patent on the plate shape.

"We used a lot of Cray supercomputer and work-station time optimizing everything," crash supervisor Chris O’Connor said. "We discovered that changing the shape and mounting system of the front bumper plates gave us a dramatic improvement in reducing peak crash forces."

The new plate helps optimize frame-rail functionality. In a typical installation, the bumper plates are attached to both sides of the frame rails. But the company’s safety engineers found that this design places more load on the inside face of the frame rail – the side closest to the engine – in the first moments of a frontal impact, creating a twisting force that tends to unevenly collapse the rail.

Mounting the plates only to the outer portion of the rails reduces this initial force on the inside face of the frame rail by 14 percent and promotes a more even collapse of the energy-absorbing structures. This transfers more than 21 percent of the overall crash energy from the inner face of the frame rail to the outer face, evening the forces and reducing intrusion into the passenger compartment by 15 percent.

New Benchmark in Side-Impact Performance

Safety engineers incorporated tailor-welding technology to help improve side-impact performance. Tailor-welded blanks use laser welding techniques to create steel sheets of varying thicknesses to be stamped into body panels.

For example, the tops of the B-pillars, which use a layer of high-strength steel called DP-600, are thicker, for strength, while the lower portions have a thinner cross-section. DP-600 steel also is used in part of the dash panel.

"It’s one of the stiffest steels available," O’Connor said.

The two B-pillars are braced together at the top by a structural roof bow that crosses the vehicle. Acting somewhat like a lever or pendulum anchored at the roof rail, the strong, reinforced top portion of the B-pillar helps safeguard occupants while the lower portion collapses, absorbing energy in a collision.

These forces are further channeled through a cross-car tube – derived from Volvo’s Side Impact Protection System. This SIPS tube directs side-impact forces beneath the front seats. A bend in the middle of the tube, under the center console, serves as a trigger point for deformation under severe loads, dissipating energy.

As part of the vehicle’s "high package" seating configuration, front seats are mounted atop the SIPS tube. In concert with the other structural safety systems, this command seating position assures that most typical vehicle-to-vehicle side crash forces are diverted underneath the seats. As a side benefit, mounting the front seats on the SIPS tube creates added foot room for second-row passengers, improving comfort.

A Step Ahead in Meeting Future Crash Standards

Rear-impact performance also is very strong, thanks in part to another engineering innovation. The rear frame rails were designed to absorb initial impact forces, then channel remaining energy into a secondary crush zone past the floor well. Ford has proved the design effective in 55-mph rear crash tests and has applied for a patent on the design.

This rear-impact performance is designed to meet a proposed future federal crash standard well before it is scheduled to take effect.

In the Montego, all seating positions have head restraints to protect against whiplash. Head restraints are adjustable in the front row and fixed in the rear.

Montego’s fuel tank is protected on all sides. It is in front of the rear suspension, surrounded by subframe rails or cross-members. The horseshoe shape of the rear subframe guides crash energy around the fuel tank and into the vehicle’s lower structure.

Breakthrough Technology Offers New Level in Occupant Protection

Volvo’s safety expertise and Ford Motor Company’s engineering resources combine to deliver a new level of occupant protection in the Montego.

One tangible result of the collaboration is a new adaptive steering column that collapses in different ways during frontal impacts, depending on the amount of crash energy and the driver's size and position.

It works by incorporating an energy-absorbing steel "bend sheet" that holds the upper and lower portions of the column together. The bend sheet shape better controls the collapse of the steering column during impacts.

By tapping into information from various sensors, the safety control module – the computer "brains" of the safety system – determines how quickly the steering column should collapse. Factors considered include the driver’s seat position and seatbelt use.

If the situation calls for it, the safety control module signals a mechanical device to pull a steel pin out of the bend sheet, cutting in half the column’s resistance to collapse. This results in a "softer" column, should the driver impact the steering wheel. The steering column response is tailored to work with the air-bag deployment level.

Safety Belts, Air Bags Designed to Work Hand-in-Hand

Federal government statistics indicate safety belts save lives, which is why Ford engineers put considerable emphasis on Montego’s restraints system. Safety restraints used in the Montego were refined through more than 50,000 crash simulations.

To begin with, three-point belts are used at all seating positions. In addition, Montego takes Ford Motor Company’s award-winning BeltMinder™ system to the next level, using an instrument-panel icon and a gentle chime to remind
not only drivers, but front-seat passengers to buckle up. Introduced in 1999, BeltMinder™ has been shown to increase real-world safety belt use.

Montego’s rear seat offers two LATCH (lower anchors and tethers for children) mounting points for child seats. They are designed to accommodate one child seat in the center position or up to two in the outboard positions. Federal safety data show that child safety seats reduce infant fatalities by more than 70 percent.

LATCH-compatible child seats snap quickly and easily into robust anchor points in the fold between the seat’s lower and back cushions, while the upper strap hooks onto a mounting ring on the seat or parcel shelf.

For optimum response, Montego’s safety belt system employs pyrotechnic pretensioners to take up any slack in the belts on impact. As the crash progresses, digressive load-limiting retractors behind the B-pillar trim help pay out belt material to reduce peak loads on the occupants. The belts work in concert with dual-stage front air bags to reduce crash forces reaching the front-seat occupants. Air-bag deployment is tailored to the crash, taking into account occupant size and position, severity of impact and belt use.

In addition, the driver’s seat is equipped with an advanced track sensor to gauge the driver’s proximity to the steering wheel. The front passenger seat employs an occupant classification system technology to determine the presence and weight of a front passenger. If the seat is unoccupied, or if the system senses a light load like a child or child seat, the passenger air bag is deactivated. This helps prevent unneeded passenger air-bag deployment, offering added protection for smaller occupants like children and lowering the cost of vehicle repair.

Side air bags and the exclusive Safety Canopy curtain air bags are optional on the new Montego. Using data compiled by crash-severity, rollover, seat-track position and belt-usage sensors, plus information from the passenger-seat occupant classification system, the safety computer determines within milliseconds which, if any, air bags to deploy.

During side impacts, side air bags are released from the seatbacks to provide thorax protection. The ceiling-mounted Safety Canopy™ curtain air bags offer head protection for both rows. And they are designed with a special deployment strategy that keeps them inflated longer for added protection during a rollover.

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the combination of head and thorax protection can reduce fatalities by more than 45 percent in side impacts.

That Feeling of Security

Enhancing that feeling of security are standard four-channel antilock brakes that can help drivers maintain control under extreme braking conditions. Electronic brake force distribution monitors braking front-to-rear and optimizes performance under varying loads.

Traction control is standard in the Premier and optional on other models. It constantly monitors slip at all four wheels and can act in as little as 100 milliseconds to help restore or maintain traction. The system works by first reducing engine power by retarding ignition spark timing, then, if necessary, cutting fuel flow. Finally, if needed, it activates selective braking to stop wheel spin.

To protect against theft, the Mercury Montego is equipped with the SecuriLock™ passive anti-theft system. Only a key with the correct code – there are 72 million billion possible combinations – will start the vehicle. A remote perimeter vehicle alarm is optional.

The standard key fob allows one-button door locking and unlocking and the ability to open the trunk from outside the vehicle. A standard keypad on the driver’s door allows quick and convenient access to the vehicle, if the keys and key fob are locked inside. Doors lock automatically once the vehicle begins moving.

Standard automatic headlamps provide additional, short-time convenience lighting after the vehicle is turned off. Lamps located along the bottom of the side mirrors on some series are activated by the unlock button on the key fob, providing perimeter lighting at night.

The optional reverse sensing system uses ultrasonic waves from sensors mounted in the rear fascia to help drivers negotiate tight parking spaces and head off dings and scrapes. It sounds a series of increasingly rapid beeps as the rear bumper closes in on a stationary object.