Sustainability
Pilot project for sustainable aviation
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Industrial sector
Mammut: developing an airbag system for avalanche backpacks
To strengthen its leadership in avalanche safety, Mammut set out to develop a new, robust airbag system for its backpacks, built for extreme conditions and designed for series production. Zühlke supported the project end-to-end, from the initial concept to industrialisation and product launch.
Customer benefits
- Robust, reliable inflation system designed for extreme conditions.
- Reduced size and improved modularity, enabling tool-free integration across multiple backpack models.
- Cost-effective system architecture and manufacturing approach that meets predefined cost limits.
Challenge
Mammut has long been a pioneer in avalanche safety and remains an undisputed market leader. To maintain and strengthen its position in a highly competitive industry, the company needed to keep pushing the boundaries of what its extreme-condition products could deliver.
Against this backdrop, Mammut set out to develop a new inflation system for its avalanche backpacks. Zühlke supported the project from the initial concept, evaluating suitable inflation technologies and developing a compact, reliable, and cost-efficient inflation system ready for series production.
Solution
The project began with a feasibility study evaluating potential inflation technologies supported by a detailed analysis of the existing airbag system. In the early phases of the project, Zühlke conducted efficient functional testing with initial prototypes and developed a new inflation mechanism.
During production planning, the emphasis shifted to manufacturability and cost. Through value engineering, a new system architecture with targeted functional integration was designed. A variety of manufacturing processes was assessed, and a design-to-cost approach was applied to meet predefined cost limits without compromising performance.
“Thanks to Zühlke's clever ideas, our avalanche backpack perfectly meets the needs of our customers.”
Outcome
Together with Mammut, Zühlke established a new supply chain and supported the series’ launch with the selected system suppliers.
The resulting inflation system is reliable and maintenance-free, while also being smaller and taking up less backpack space than its predecessor. It can be easily removed and fitted into other Mammut models without tools, enabling product modularity across the portfolio. An adjustable activation handle improves ergonomics and makes triggering the airbag easier for users of different heights.
