💥 Pyrotechnics — airbag inflators & pyro-fuses

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Where you meet it: Airbag inflators (steering wheel, dash, seat bolsters, roof rails) · seatbelt pretensioners · EV battery pyro-fuses · some fire-suppression actuators

What you need to know

These are explosive devices, classified UN3268 Hazard Class 9 (or Division 1.4G), and under US hazardous waste rules they are reactive and/or ignitable waste.
Uncontrolled deployment is a projectile-force event — inflation at roughly 200 mph, ~300 °C gas, around 165 dB in a confined space. It can amputate.
Takata PSAN inflators rupture their steel housings into shrapnel and are under the largest automotive recall in history. ARC and Delphi inflators are under investigation.
Sodium azide in older inflators is acutely toxic and forms explosive azides on contact with copper, lead, brass and zinc plumbing — never rinse residue down a drain.
Airbag control modules keep a backup capacitor that can fire squibs after the battery is disconnected. Wait 10–30 minutes.
Legal: a qualifying handler may hold up to 250 units for up to 180 days in DOT-compliant containers labelled "Airbag Waste – Do Not Reuse", shipped only to an OEM collection facility or designated disposal facility, with three years of records. Selling used inflators is a criminal offence in several states.

The rule: NEVER open, cut, heat, drill, drop, shred or sell an inflator. There is no recoverable metal in one — the initiator's gold is measured in micrograms. Deploy-in-place by a trained handler, or hand it to the OEM collection stream.

Components this applies to

Laboratory Platinum Ware Other · $20000–32000/lb Pt ~454 g/lb — it is solid metalAu 5% in Pt-5%Au XRF fusion cruciblesBase Rh 5–10% in Pt-Rh crucibles S X-Ray Film & Spent Fixer Other · $1–4/lb Ag 0.07–0.10 ozt/lb (2.2–3.1 g/lb) medical filmAg 0.15–0.25 ozt/lb industrial NDT filmAg 1–6 g/L in spent fixer B Airbag control module (ACM/SDM/RCM) Automotive · $2–6/lb Au 0.010–0.030 g per unitAg 0.05–0.2 g per unit C Backup batteries & Dallas RTC modules ☠ ICs & chips · $50–800/lb Cu ~40 g/lbAu <0.1 g/lb C EV / hybrid battery management boards Automotive · $5–15/lb Au 0.01–0.05 g per master boardAg ~0.1 g per master boardCu 10–50 g busbar traces per cell-tap board C Instrument clusters & head units Automotive · $3–12/lb Au 0.008–0.100 g per unitAg 0.2–0.6 g in a premium head unitPd 0.02–0.06 g in a premium head unitCu 20–500 g C Airbag inflators & undeployed modules ☠ Automotive · $0–0/lb Base none worth recovering D

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