The supplier and automakers have continued to claim that the root cause of the inflator defect has not been determined, though all acknowledge evidence that moisture appears to degrade the ammonium-nitrate propellant. Inflators consequently fire with too much force, causing the metal housing to rupture and send shrapnel flying into the cabin.
“Takata has … committed to cease producing these types of driver inflators,” Takata North America executive VP Kevin Kennedy wrote in prepared testimony ahead of Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing (PDF). “And we are working with our automaker partners to transition to newer versions of driver inflators in our replacement kits or inflators made by other suppliers that do not contain ammonium nitrate propellant.”
The company also promises to eventually replace certain parts, known as ‘batwing’ inflators, that have already been installed as replacement components in the initial recall campaigns. All of the fatalities and most of the injuries have been associated with batwing inflators on the driver-side airbag.
The supplier is currently producing 700,000 replacement units per month, with output expected to hit a million parts per month by September. By the end of the year 70 percent of the parts output will be handled by competitors, up from a current level of 50 percent.
The company will be working to build replacement inflators for nearly 34 million vehicles sold in the US market.
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