HIROSHIMA, JAPAN ― Mazda Motor Corp. said it has developed an advanced safety technology called Smart City Brake Support (SCBS), which helps a driver to avoid a frontal collision when driving at low speeds in the city or in slow traffic. The SCBS system will be available in Mazda's all-new crossover SUV, the Mazda CX-5, to be launched this spring.

The SCBS system uses a laser sensor to detect a vehicle or obstacle in front and automatically reduces the extent of the brake rotor travel to quicken braking operation. If the driver fails to perform any operation to avoid a collision, such as applying the brake, SCBC automatically activates the brakes and reduces the engine output at the same time. 

In this way, SCBC helps to avoid collisions or mitigate the damage from rear-end collisions at low speeds, which are the most common accidents with other vehicles. The SCBS system also includes Acceleration Control for Automatic Transmission, which helps avoid unintentional acceleration that could be caused by depressing the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.

The Mazda CX-5 will also feature new advanced bumpers, as a result of Mazda's recent collaboration with Japan Polypropylene Corp. to develop resin material for lighter-weight vehicle parts. Mazda will use lighter-weight bumpers using this resin material in the Mazda CX-5 SUV as well as in other upcoming new models.

The resin, Mazda said, maintains the same rigidity found in parts made with heavier, more conventional materials. When the material is used for both front and rear bumpers, it contributes to weight reduction of approximately 20%. 

In the bumper production process, the reduced thickness allows for a shorter cooling period for molding. In addition, by using computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology, the fluidity of the resin material has also been optimized, Mazda said. As a result, bumper-molding time, previously 60 seconds, has been halved to 30 seconds, leading to major reductions in the amount of energy consumed in the production process.

Mazda said the companies blended two components found in polypropylene and rubber -- the constituents of resin -- that have different properties. They succeeded in distributing them in a double-layer structure in line with the required function for the surface and the inside of the base bumper material. As a result, the surface has excellent paint film adhesion, and the inner section retains high rigidity and impact absorption, with reduced thickness.

Moving forward, Mazda said it remains committed to reducing vehicle weight and improving dynamic performance.