Tanners not to blame for Takata’s troubles with Ferrari

20/07/2015
Luxury car brand Ferrari announced on July 17 that it was recalling 2,400 vehicles sold between December 2014 and April 2015 because of a fault in the leather covering of airbags on the driver’s side. However, it’s clear from the details the supplier, Japanese firm Takata, has released that the problem is not with the leather itself and is, therefore, not the fault of tanners.

In turn, Ferrari and Takata each blamed suppliers for the difficulty. Takata told Ferrari that it had discovered a “production nonconformance issue” with the airbags, but said these had reached its assembly plants pre-assembled by a tier-two supplier. Specifically, it explained that the problem was a fault in the way the leather had been attached to a plastic shell.

This attachment of the leather to the plastic takes place downstream of the tannery.