Takata Air Bags - Some Notes on This Disaster

[rhinefire]

If you thought the shrapnel is small coming out of the discrepant Takata air bags I just read the size of the shrapnel is that of a hockey puck.
The number of recalls is about 100,000,000 worldwide and many cars are being assembled today with the bad bags.***
It will take the company three years to make enough replacement bags.
One of every five cars in America has defective bags.
The devices become more unstable as time goes by because the chemistry in the mechanism goes bad especially in hot, humid environments. This gas is created by burning propellant. This propellant (ammonium nitrate) is squeezed in to a pellet the size of an aspirin. Upon impact the tablet is ignited and converts from solid to gas.
The reason for the excessive explosion is a result of unstable compound.
8.4 million bags have been replaced as of May 2016.***
In 2012 workers installed the wrong part in to the inflators in some 350,000 vehicles and they too had to be recalled for a second time. Makes you wonder how long it took to catch this mistake and why so long.
So I just had my 2004 Dodge Ram bags replaced in the past few months after a few years of waiting and my 2013 Mustang is scheduled to get serviced in the last quarter of 2016.
On June1 a Senate report said four car makers are still selling new models with the faulty air bags. I also heard this on the radio not long ago and the reason is they should not blow up for at least six years. Gives one a real sense of pride in product no?
The dollar numbers are 11 billion in total to fix everything. Takata has 520 million on hand and is worth 320 million right now, less than one-tenth what it was worth at it's peak in 2007.
My advice is park it if you have a bad air bag. I don't drive my Mustang except to the corner store.

 

[Brochacholomigo]

...Well ****.

 

[iguanaman]

If you thought the shrapnel is small coming out of the discrepant Takata air bags I just read the size of the shrapnel is that of a hockey puck.
The number of recalls is about 100,000,000 worldwide and many cars are being assembled today with the bad bags.***
It will take the company three years to make enough replacement bags.
One of every five cars in America has defective bags.
The devices become more unstable as time goes by because the chemistry in the mechanism goes bad especially in hot, humid environments. This gas is created by burning propellant. This propellant (ammonium nitrate) is squeezed in to a pellet the size of an aspirin. Upon impact the tablet is ignited and converts from solid to gas.
The reason for the excessive explosion is a result of unstable compound.
8.4 million bags have been replaced as of May 2016.***
In 2012 workers installed the wrong part in to the inflators in some 350,000 vehicles and they too had to be recalled for a second time. Makes you wonder how long it took to catch this mistake and why so long.
So I just had my 2004 Dodge Ram bags replaced in the past few months after a few years of waiting and my 2013 Mustang is scheduled to get serviced in the last quarter of 2016.
On June1 a Senate report said four car makers are still selling new models with the faulty air bags. I also heard this on the radio not long ago and the reason is they should not blow up for at least six years. Gives one a real sense of pride in product no?
The dollar numbers are 11 billion in total to fix everything. Takata has 520 million on hand and is worth 320 million right now, less than one-tenth what it was worth at it's peak in 2007.
My advice is park it if you have a bad air bag. I don't drive my Mustang except to the corner store.

This is an example of competitive market forces creating substandard and dangerous goods. Takata is the only maker who uses ammonium nitrate because of the problems you mention. It is also cheaper than other propellants meaning Takata could make more money or sell them cheaper than other makers. I would say this blew up in their face but the reality is that it is blowing up others faces. This was also a failure by the NHTSA to prohibit the use of ammonium nitrate because of its long term stability problems. I would add that even these sometimes unstable Takata airbags have saved far more injuries than they have created.