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These are challenging times, not only for the manufacturing industry but for our planet and its inhabitants. The markets are changing rapidly, and there is fierce competition everywhere in the automotive business and in the manufacturing world. We face global sustainability challenges, including climate change, depletion of natural resources, poverty, population growth, urbanization and congestion. Consumers are increasingly concerned about rising fuel prices, energy security (see Figure 1: “Increased demand for energy”) and climate change. With these great challenges comes great opportunity. As the pace of change accelerates, innovation is more important than ever [2]. The reduction of CO2 emissions, initiatives for vehicle weight reduction, fuel economy improvements, hybrid vehicle technologies, hydrogen fuel cell powertrains or bio-fueled automobiles only represent some of the latest product related innovations, benefiting the environment and the customer.

The predominant inflator system today for automotive airbag modules typically uses sodium azide propellant. Use of this type of inflator system has raised concerns about the toxicity and disposal of these systems. Under development is an advanced automotive airbag inflator system that is a non-toxic alternative to current azide configurations. The non-azide inflator uses a combination of organic fuel, oxidizer, and burnrate modifiers as propellant. This paper will describe the development of an advanced non-azide inflator system for automotive airbag modules. Compared with present technology, the advanced non-azide system offers environmental compatibility, equivalent restraint performance, and significant weight and size reductions for improved packaging.