Body - Chevrolet Captiva Manual

TRAINING
Many innovations have been integrated in the Cap-
tiva's body structure to obtain a high degree of
occupant safety, and also to protect pedestrians
against severe injuries in case of unfortunate colli-
sions.
Crumple zones
To accommodate the impact energy in case of a
crash, the front, sides and rear of the passenger
compartment are surrounded by crumple zones
that deform and protect in a controlled manner.
At both front and rear of the vehicle, crash boxes
have been integrated to absorb impact energy at
an early stage of a collision.
At the front these crash boxes can be replaced
separately but at the rear they are part of the longi-
tudinal chassis beams.
At higher impact speeds, the deformation energy is
transferred to the front frame in a defined manner.
In frontal impacts, the impact energy is distributed
through three load paths:
Upper load path
●
Middle load path
●
Lower load path via the hydro-formed sub-frame
●
In a frontal collision, the separate steering column
cross member and a collapsible column design limit
the penetration of the steering wheel into the pas-
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Body

senger compartment. This also ensures the correct
airbag position.
The side doors are reinforced with side-impact
beams, creating a rigid profile at waist level.
Together with the high strength steel "B"-pillars
and the large-dimensioned rocker sills, the penetra-
tion of the doors in side impacts is reduced, thus
providing a protective cage around the passenger
compartment. Energy-absorbing padding on the
inside of the doors further increases occupant pro-
tection.
In the event of a rear-end collision, several struc-
tural measures to protect the vehicle occupants
are brought to bear, including:
The steel bumper cross member, which is
●
securely connected to the rear end structure,
absorbs impact energy in smaller collisions and
reduces repair costs.
The rear frames are reinforced and pass on the
●
impact forces below the passenger
compartment. An additional load deflection
route is built up over the wheels.
The fuel system is properly located in a safe
●
area in front of the rear axle.