INFICON Leak Detection Technology Helps Improve Airbag Testing

Automotive suppliers will quality check more than 300 million airbag-inflator systems using sophisticated helium- and hydrogen-based leak-detection technology in 2015. Autoliv, the worldwide leader of automotive safety systems whose products include airbags, seatbelts, steering wheels and electronics, began using INFICON leak-detection equipment to test airbag igniters at its Tremonton, Utah facilities in 2006. The program was so successful that Autoliv later expanded its use of INFICON test equipment to quality check complete stored-gas and pyrotechnic inflators at its plant in Brigham City. Based on mass spectrometer technology, the LDS3000 equipment at Autoliv operates in a demanding, high-speed process that generates more than three million tests per year.

INFICON recently celebrated the production of its 1,000th LDS3000 Helium-Hydrogen Leak Detector since launching in 2012. The LDS3000 is the fourth generation of the successful LDS1000. Autoliv took delivery of the milestone unit at its Brigham City facility earlier this year.

Thomas Parker, North American automotive sales manager for INFICON, estimates that automakers and their suppliers annually conduct more than 600 million leak tests on airbag inflator components and seatbelt pretension systems in the United States alone. The majority of those tests are conducted with INFICON equipment. Using helium or hydrogen as tracer gases, the company's leak-detection systems are used to test various automotive components and sub-assemblies including airbags, fuel systems, automatic transmissions and torque converters, engines and automotive heat exchangers.

INFICON leak detectors, such as the LDS3000, provide manufacturers with the highest leak-detection measurement speeds available; the industry's only three-year ion-source warranty; significantly below-average maintenance requirements, and the ability to reliably operate under demanding, non-stop, 24-hour/seven-day-a-week production conditions.

The recall this year of more than 14 million vehicles worldwide for safety-related airbag defects has focused public attention on airbag quality, Parker points out.

"Developed especially for demanding performance and reliability requirements in the auto industry, our LDS3000 detectors are faster, more compact and more accurate than previous models and are ideally suited for airbag testing," says Parker. "The modular, ultra-compact design is easy to integrate into a variety of leak-detection systems."

To learn more about the LDS3000, please visit our website or call your nearest sales representative.