Vetter Airbag Users

[STEWPIDASO]

Is there anybody in Easter Pennsylvania or the southern half of New Jersey using Vetter Airbags? I have some questions, thanks.

[ADSNWFLD]

Why don't you shoot off some questions and see if the rest of the country can answer them?

[STEWPIDASO]

What is the life expectancy of our Vetter bags? Can they be tested? Is there an absolute "time of death" for an airbag? Obviously, no damage, etc, just the age of the bags.

[Ron Shaw]

I have found that the flat HP bags start to fail as they approach 10 years of service. I have seen (2) sets of HP bags fail under load during training that were both (10) years old.

Use and storage have a direct bearing on a bag system's life. The less use, exercised, the less longevity they will have.

Lift bags are hydrostatically tested, if your flat HP bags are near 10 year mark, don’t be surprised if they fail (rupture) during the testing.

John Healy of Warren RI tests has tested our Vetter HP lift bags we use during extrication training programs. However, it should be noted there is nothing saying that once your bag has been tested, it won't fail. Healy makes this know to his clients at the time of testing.

Ron Shaw
Extrication.Com

[STEWPIDASO]

We(Guardian Fire Equipment, Harleysville, Pa) were just trained by Vetter(Hurst) to test high pressure airbags. The Low pressure have to be sent back to Vetter for testing. In the class, another dealer brought four 28 year old vetter air bags. We tested them and three of them failed the hydrotest. 1 still worked fine but as the last post said nothing says it won't fail tomorrow. But again the bags were 28 years old, long past any life expectancy, they did fail at over pressurization, so what do you expect. We are telling our customers, on any new Vetter purchases that the 116 psi and 145 psi system will last 15-20 years with proper care and testing. It was a really cool class taught by Frank Schneider from Germany, another German engineer. I picked up alot on airbags and testing to add to my State Fire Classes. Later Feel free to ask any questions, stay safe.