Air bag volatility

Air bags are fecking dangerous - I have set one off (on purpose).

The reason you have to make sure they are the right way up is because they can launch themselves and become a projectile.

The average air bag produces about 60 litres of nitrogen gas in about

20-30 milliseconds, it's actually deflating when your face hits it after about 200 milliseconds. The gas is produced by a pyrotechnic charge and sodium azide (which is extremely poisonous if it gets wet).

They only need a few millivolts to set off too, a small static discharge would do it. Most of them have a shorting bar across the contacts, so as you unplug them the terminals are shorted to prevent current being sent to the igniter. It has been known for people to try and probe these with a multimeter - which can bung 9v up it.

Although if that sets it off you can sue their arse off, they've got a blocking cap so they can only be set off by a high frequency pulse. They're specced such that the fire brigade should be able to cut the column out without fear of them going off. Static discharge though is another matter. Anyway, it's no more difficult to put it down the "right" way up than the wrong way & might avoid a really stupid accident.

The one I got out of a '94 Mondeo was a bit naughty then. All it took was a car battery and the longest bit of cable I could find.

'twasn't a high frequency car battery or anything...

Cheers,

Colin.

That's very much how I did it too ;-)

In my case though it was a warranty part and we had to deploy it before disposal.

That'll teach me to trust anyone with an explosives licence ( & the man from Bosch), experiment trumps all theory. Seems a bit crap that somebody went to all the trouble of working out how to safe them & then presumably the manufacturers for the sake of £2 argued it out of the requirements.

Quite possibly. Ford do supply to their dealers a special firing button. All you need is the connector cut off a steering coupler and a long cable (about 12 ft does it).

I can tell you, an empty Cola can goes quite a long way ;-)