Since it is highly possible that a pedestrian receives a severe injury to his or her legs in a vehicle-pedestrian collision accident, UNECE WP29/GRSP released standards for protecting pedestrians’ legs in 2002 and a flexible type of legform impactor was added to the Global Technical Regulations (GTR) in 2009 according to the proposal of JAMA and JARI. The reason of the proposal is that it is more biofidelic than a rigid impactor and enables measuring leg injuries appropriately. Since 2013, after specifications of Flexible Pedestrian Legform Impactor (Flex PLI-GTR), which was evaluated by organizations including Flex TEG, were determined, JASTI has been engaged in developing and manufacturing the final specification model. At the end of 2015, we completed evaluation of prototypes both in Japan and overseas and started manufacturing and selling the products in 2016. They are currently used in Japan, China, India, and Europe.
The knee joint part is composed of machined aluminum knee block of which top and bottom ends bonded with 12 spring wires, and 4 displacement gauges measure the amount of elongation displacement of the knee joint. To facilitate ease of data collection for the bending moment of the femur and tibia and the amount of displacement of the knee, its structure allows attaching a data collection device inside the knee and ensures a high degree of flexibility in handling.