We get a lot of questions and comments about our rearward facing car seats, because they don't feature an anti-rebound bar, so we thought we'd shine some light on the whole deal!
What is an anti-rebound bar? What is it for?
An anti-rebound bar is a bar built into some rearward facing car seats, capsules and carriers which extends up the backrest of the vehicle's seat. It's used to stop the car seat rotating over, during the rebound phase of an accident (protecting your child's face, head and neck from contacting the vehicle).
Sounds good! What's the problem?!
What an accident looks like if you forget to put your anti-rebound bar up.
One of the biggest child car safety issues Australia faces is incorrect installation, and the subsequent misuse of child restraints. We believe that the more steps involved in the installation process, the more potential there is to get something wrong. One very common area of misuse is people simply forgetting to extend the anti-rebound bar, which can lead to potentially dangerous outcomes in an accident.
But InfaSecure seats don't even HAVE an anti-rebound bar! What gives?!
Our rearward facing seats don't require the use of an anti-rebound bar, because we integrate anti-rebound properties into the core design. Let's take a closer look;
Notice anything? Our seat (on the upper right) covers the same surface area (and in some cases, more) as a seat with a traditional anti-rebound bar - only you don't need to remember to set anything up, and there's nothing for your child to slide their feet under!
Even with this innovation, we still see occasional misuse - some people forget to set the swing base to rearward facing mode. In response to this (and in addition to 5 instruction labels on the child restraint), last year we began adding a special card that is locked in place until the swing base is released, to try to make it even more obvious to people installing their car seat for the first time.
The Swing Base Card found on all of our 2013 Standard convertible car seats.
In the case of the Arlo Infant Carrier, we suggest putting the handle in the forward position, but you'll be pleased to hear it passes the rebound requirements of the Australian Standard with the handle in the upright position too - it just performs a little better in the forward position.
We hope that makes our anti-rebound stuff a little easier to grasp - we like it a lot, and hope you do too - if you have any questions send us an email!
