Airbags pose technical, financial, training challenges to repairers

Doug Hansen said there are more than 100 million airbags in vehicles on the roads today keeping drivers and passengers safer than ever. But the increasing complexity and variable designs of these airbag systems present a significant challenge to the collision repair industry.

Hansen, president of Airbag Service International, LLC, presented the seminar “100 Million Airbags – Effects on the Collision Repair Industry” Wednesday morning.

“Airbag technology is advancing very quickly and because of that the tools and training demands on the industry are substantial,” Hansen says. “This needs to be addressed in a methodical business fashion to get a quality repair at a fair level of compensation.”

A passenger car that 10 years ago had one or perhaps two airbags in the front seat now may be equipped with airbags in the front, as well as sides, curtains, knees and head. The increasing use of airbags throughout the vehicle and the technology used to activate these systems present numerous challenges.

“A front airbag deploys in 100 milliseconds, but the side airbag has only 10 milliseconds to react,” Hansen says. “From a design sense this is much more sophisticated than it was 10 or 15 years ago. The seats can have bladders that depend on the weight of the occupant, the timing of the event and whether or not the occupant is wearing a seat belt. It is a very tailored event that creates a very safe car. The industry is trying to catch up to itself with all of this technology. It requires a much higher level of diagnostics to repair than before.”

For example, to work on certain 2008 model General Motors cars, repairers will have to connect the car’s air bag components with an interface on GM’s Web site.

“GM is discontinuing the stand-alone version of software, so now you will need the technology, plus the interface, plus the knowledge,” he says. “These interfaces are becoming more and more challenging.”

As the technology in these systems increases, so does the cost of the tools and software upgrades needed. “Very few repair shops can handle the variety of airbag challenges out there,” Hansen says. “They will not be able to justify the cost of the training and tools, and will choose to subcontract airbag work.”