Sabelt’s Life Saving Technology

Remember how we watched in awe as Romain Grosjean emerged from his burning vehicle. One of his saving graces, was the fact that he was using Sabelt’s safety harness technology.

Features of the safety harness used by Grosjean are:

• An aluminum buckle
• The ergonomic lever
• Vectran webbings.

Here are the benefits of the technology employed by Sabelt in their safety harnesses:

- The aluminium buckle: it is made of Ergal 7075 and designed using FEM calculation with a special triangular shape and fixed tongue integrated in the body. Sabelt buckles are subjected up to 20,000 opening and closing cycles, a number even higher than the parameters required by the FIA.

- The release lever: it is protruding and ergonomic and allows to easily activate the opening mechanism even in extremely critical situations and with poor visibility. It has been specially designed with a shape that "welcomes" the thumb which rests perfectly on the lever and creates sufficient friction to allow rapid opening.

- The regulators: also, ultra-resistant and made of aluminium, with an ergonomic shape. During the test phase, they are subjected to 1,000 micro-slide cycles to verify that the ribbon remains well firm resisting the stresses to which it is subjected during the race, and obviously in case of impacts.

- The webbings: they are produced with the new Vectran fibre that guarantees a weight of 44 g/m, 35% less at equal resistance than polyester ribbons. They have also passed the fire test unharmed, working correctly without damage.

Finally, the Sabelt seat belts performance exceeds the requirements of the new FIA 8853/2016 standard. For example, fatigue cycles are increased to multiples of the required minimum. Sabelt performs up to 20,000 cycles of the 5,000 required by regulation. The same applies to micro-sliding. If the regulation requires that it must not exceed 25 mm, in Sabelt it does not go beyond 5 mm. The webbings, in turn, against a minimum homologation of 1,500 Kg, depending on the application, can reach 3,500 Kg.

Companies such as Sabelt have been instrumental is reducing the number of fatalities in motorsport, through their commitment to research and development.