Thought you’ve seen the last of those pesky airbag recalls? It looks like another massive one is headed the US’ way – and this time, it’s not Takata’s fault. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is set to issue a recall 49 million vehicles in the country after it found a defect in 51 million airbag inflators produced by ARC Automotive and Delphi that could cause injury or even death.
Outlining the defect is a supplemental initial decision released by the agency on July 31, upholding the findings published in September last year and increasing the likelihood of a recall. The inflators have been linked to a total of nine injuries and two deaths since 2009, including two injuries and one death reported outside the US, in Saudi Arabia and Canada respectively.
Just like with the Takata airbags, the inflators that were made by ARC and Delphi – the latter under licence until 2004 – are prone to over-pressurisation and rupture, sending deadly metal shrapnel to the cabin. In this case, the ruptures have been attributed to the friction welding process, which either produces blockage material (such as excessive weld flash) or insufficient weld bonds. Loose debris in the centre support may block the exit orifice upon airbag deployment, causing the aforementioned over-pressurisation.
The defective hybrid toroidal inflators were manufactured since 2000 up until the implementation of an automated borescope in August 2017, which was fully completed in June 2018. These inflators wound up being installed in cars manufactured by BMW, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota and Volkswagen.
“The overwhelming majority of the subject inflators will not rupture upon deployment. However, based on the evidence linking past ruptures to the same friction welding process, all of the subject inflators are at risk of rupturing,” said the NHTSA in its supplemental initial decision.
Some of these carmakers, such as BMW, Ford and Volkswagen, have already conducted small-scale recalls based on production lot acceptance tests, while GM has recalled almost one million vehicles as a result of those field ruptures, as Bloomberg has reported. The NHTSA argues, however, that the ruptures involved inflators produced over a wide variety of time periods, plants, and manufacturing lines, necessitating a broader recall.
Both ARC and certain automakers implicated, such as Stellantis, have argued that the low incidence of ruptures does not warrant a widespread recall, but the NHTSA said such a view is unreasonable “given that a foreseeable outcome [of any future rupture] is severe injury or death.”
