TECHNOLOGY | LFTs
the conventional pressed steel spare wheel well. It is a flexible part that functions as a spare wheel well or to provide additional under-floor storage in versions with tyre repair kits. It can also provide space for a Li-ion battery pack for hybrid models, an integrated urea tank for diesel models, and has sufficient capacity to accommodate an LPG tank. The part is manufactured using compression
insert moulding by Roechling, which allows it to be flexibly configured for different applications. A glass mat reinforced PP GMtex insert is incorpo- rated in all versions to meet crash performance requirements with an additional metal strap used in the spare wheel variant. Integrated moulded-in honeycomb reinforcement adds strength and improves NHV performance. The part is adhesive bonded to the steel car body. Aside from the flexibility in production, the MegaBox allows a much deeper design than is
possible in steel — the Puma’s MegaBox is more than 290mm deep compared to 210mm for the equivalent in the company’s Fiesta model. The increased design flexibility further improved space utilisation in the structure — the MegaBox provides a usable volume of 80 litres compared to 20 litres on the Fiesta. The Ford engineers said the part delivers a weight saving of around 3kg per vehicle, depending on the variant. Another Ford application — a lightweight door module carrier developed by Brose Fahrzeugteile and Chinese compounder Kingfa for the Ford Focus — demonstrates how LFTs can be applied in combi- nation with new continuous fibre reinforced thermo- plastic composites. It was explained at AMI’s US Long-Fibre Thermoplastics conference, which took place in Detroit in March last year, by Dr Feina Cao, Research and Development Manager with Kingfa in the US.
A market dominated by automotive
The automotive industry is by far the biggest consumer of LFTs and the vast majority of these applications (more than 90%) are PP-based, according to Sylvia Tabero, Senior Consultant with Compounding World publisher AMI and one of the company’s specialists in long fibre reinforced polypropylene compounds. The prime reason for this automotive dominance is the ability of the materials to combine high strength and low weight together with design freedom, which allows them to provide an interesting alternative to metal-based solutions. The automotive industry’s predictable (at least in the past) and large production runs have also helped make it easier to justify the up-front development costs, Tabero says. Even so, the use of LFTs varies
considerably among manufacturers and models. The average amount of LFT in a car from some major European OEMs amounts to more than 6kg, but stands at less than 1kg for one leading Japanese OEM. Some OEMs use LFTs widely in frontend carriers, while others don’t use it at all. Tabero says the
32 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2020
Door modules are a typical automotive LFT application. This example is made using Trinseo's Enlite PP LFT
reasons for this are numerous, ranging from preferences of engineering designers at OEMs and Tier Ones, through to supply chain ownership and logistics. Apart from front-end carriers, LFTs are also used in tailgates/lift gates, instrument panel carriers, door modules, and under the hood. Tabero says it is not clear at the
current time how the development of electric vehicles (EVs) will affect the use of LFTs. They may not be used so much in front ends, for example, as the radiators that they carry are no longer there, but they could be an important solution for protecting batteries. In any case, the global growth in LFTs has
been exceeding 6%/yr and it is forecast to continue to outpace the automotive market through increasing the average kg per vehicle. LFT market development has been largely dominated by materials producers, such as the likes of Celanese and SABIC, but compounders such as China- based Kingfa are also significant. It established its first production lines in 2004 and
now has the largest LFT capacity in China, with products being used in components at many major automotive and also electronics OEMs. Kingfa makes LFTs based on PP as well as polyamide and has projects running in LFT-TPU and LFT-PPS. While it has compounding operations in Germany and in the US it does not produce LFTs at these locations.
n AMI’s most recent analysis of the LFT market — Long Fibre Polypropylene Compounds, The Global Market — was published in late 2017 and provided data on market size and growth rates, LFT-PP’s positioning relative to competing materials, and the current state of LFT technology. �
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www.compoundingworld.com
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