Takata says output of air bags with volatile chemical 'will go down rapidly'
Reuters
Published Jun 02, 2015 05:22PM ET
Takata says output of air bags with volatile chemical 'will go down rapidly'
WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Takata Corp (t:7312) has supplied more than 4 million replacement air bag inflators, some of which will have to be replaced again, a company executive told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday.
Kevin Kennedy, executive vice president of Takata subsidiary TK Holdings, told a House subcommittee hearing that half of the air bag replacement parts that Takata provided last month to automakers were made by other suppliers with a different chemical compound.
Kennedy said Takata is still making inflators with a volatile chemical compound, ammonium nitrate, which he said has been identified as one of the factors in ruptured air bag inflators. He said Takata last year began making an "alternate" propellant from guanidine nitrate, and that it will "rapidly" reduce production of inflators made with ammonium nitrate.
Kennedy said that by the end of the year, about 70 percent of replacement inflators for defective Takata air bags will be made by competitors TRW Automotive [TRWTA.UL] and Autoliv Inc. (N:ALV), which use guanidine nitrate as the chief ingredient in their inflator propellant.
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Written By: Reuters
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