A few years ago when Citroën launched the C4 Cactus, many were amazed by the presence of the Airbumps — which unfortunately got lost in the restyling… — air pockets placed along the body panels to cushion the small impacts of the day. -day.
What most of us didn't know is that someone had already tried to dampen the daily shocks, not with air, but with water — hence the Waterbumps…
In other words, long before Airbumps were a reality, someone had already created the Hi-Dro Cushion Cells . These “cushions” filled with water created sometime between the 60s and 70s of the last century (we don't have exact dates, but taking into account the models used in the advertisements we point to that time) were the result of the ingenuity of their creator, John Rich.
Whenever a reversing maneuver did not go so well or there was a low-speed crash, there were these “cushions” “bursting like a balloon” of water and preventing more damage to the bumpers (than at the time when were created were still metallic, don't forget).
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Unaesthetic but effective
It is true that the first impression we get when looking at this solution is negative. After all, it's the same as traveling with water bottles strapped to your bumper, but whoever used them says that the Hi-Dro Cushion Cells actually did their job after all.Among the users of these “pads” were about 100 taxi fleets from New York to San Francisco. Using this system, studies carried out at the time revealed that repair costs were reduced by around 56%, as well as car downtime (50%) due to accidents and injuries caused by minor accidents.
How did they work?
The key to this solution was that the water inside the rubber “cushion” did the same thing as the spring damping assembly, dampening the impact and absorbing the resulting kinetic energy. So, instead of the bumper having to deal directly with the shock, it was Hi-Dro Cushion Cells, which could then be used again, just by refilling them.
It's true that today's bumpers are much better than those of 50 years ago, but it's no less true that a system like Hi-Dro Cushion Cells would be welcome to avoid those annoying scratches that some of us manage to accumulate on our bumpers. -shocks from touching the parking lot. Could it be that here is a solution from the past that still has a future? In the video you can see the Hi-Dro Cushion Cells in operation…
Source: jalopnik