Development of an airbag fabric from polylon: a new composite polymer. dr. (mrs.) tasnim n. shaikh, dr. satyajeet chaudhari and mr. hiren rasania department of textile engineering, faculty of technology & engineering, the maharaja sayajirao university of baroda, vadodara, gujarat, india. shaikh_tasnim@yahoo.com, sats31@yahoo.com airbags; front airbags, side airbags, head airbags and knee airbags for driver and front and back seat passengers are a standard feature in most new vehicles today. it is an occupant restraint system consisting of a flexible fabric envelope or cushion designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision. thus it lowers the number of injuries by reducing the force exerted by steering wheel and the dashboard or any point on the body. so, an airbag fabric material installed in a car can able to maintain superior air-tightness and flexibility for the occupant's safety and also sufficiently endure the impact applied to the airbag. nylon 6, 6 remains the material of choice for airbag fabric since long, due to its favourable properties especially impact resistance. however, it is inferior to high tenacity polyester fibre in humid heat resistance, light resistance, shape stability as well as cost. so, in the present experimentation an airbag fabric was made out of an innovative composite yarn, viz; 420 denier /200 filaments polylon yarn. it is a composite yarn of 70% high tenacity polyester and 30% nylon 6. the composite polymer, cover up individual’s limitations and offers desirable features in one yarn to be taken into consideration for an airbag. its tenacity was found lower than nylon 6, 6 but elongation was higher. it has competitive features in terms of elastic recovery, moisture content, melting point, specific heat capacity and modulus to that of nylon 6, 6. coating makes fabric stiff, reduces folding capacity, adds to the cost and complications. so, the experimentation was carried out with fabric samples which were kept uncoated and made by weaving unsized yarns. it has been found that all the fabric samples made up of either fully polylon yarn or it as a weft or warp can able to meet the standards of mercedeze benze. air bag fabric made out of polylon yarns was found superior over commercial airbag coated fabric in terms of all, viz; low weight, low thickness, folding capacity, thermal resistance at higher temperature as well as economy. however, toughness and warp way tear strength were low, but well above minimum specified one.