MATERIALS | AUTOMOTIVE


Right: Covestro has collaborated with X2F to develop thermally conductive automotive lighting components as part of an in-mould electronics assembly that is a lighter and more affordable replacement for cast aluminium heat sinks


that is a lighter and more affordable replacement for cast aluminium heat sinks. The thermally conductive automotive heat-sink with in-mould electronics is moulded from Covestro’s Makrolon polycar- bonate and can be used to integrate LED modules directly into the headlamp housing without fundamentally changing the heat-sink adjuster module design. The part is produced usings X2F’s controlled viscosity, low-pressure injection moulding approach. The process can use advanced materials to mould complex product geometries with improved operational efficiencies, including the use of highly filled materials that may not be possible to mould with conventional manufacturing approaches, according to Reza Garaee, senior project manager for X2F.


X2F says the moulded part produced in collabo- Below:


Mass-balanced materials are used to produce new Covestro high-perfor- mance PC materials


ration with Covestro is approximately half as heavy as the typical aluminium part, and eliminates the labour associated with the installation of fasteners, screws, thermal pastes, and adhesives. The production-ready technology streamlines the production process, reduces manufacturing time, and increases product design flexibility. Resulting parts can have improvements in performance depending on the application and materials used, says Garaee. The X2F process uses electrically generated heat


instead of high-pressure shearing, which enables control of the state of the melted material at ideal temperatures and pressures throughout the moulding process. A multi-step extrusion process is used to deliver material into the mould using the company’s patented “pulse-pack” process to fill the


mould. By continuously sensing mould cavity pressure and deploying a pack, hold and repack process, X2F builds to the optimal mould pressure. Because the X2F process utilises


low pressure and controlled viscosity it dramatically reduces material degradation and mould-


ed-in stress inherent in conventional moulding technologies. X2F is commercialising its moulding technol-


ogy, with initial target applications that include the over moulding of delicate electronics and


circuitry with highly filled engineering resins, and polymer-based optics with improved properties. X2F recently added a rotary table design which


it says reduces cycle times and enables production volumes of up to four million parts per year with one unit, depending on the cycle time, for the manufacture of critical components in the automo- tive, electronics and medical industries. One application using Covestro PC materials is


a wallbox charging station housing for electric vehicles produced by EVBox, a charging station developer based in the Netherlands. Covestro premiered the EVBox Livo wallbox at the K2022 fair in Germany as an e-mobility application. The wallbox is made from a compound from Covestro’s new Makrolon RE product series, which is pro- duced proportionately from bio-waste and residual materials and partly using renewable electricity. Covestro’s Makrolon RE materials are identical to their fossil-based counterparts and have the same material properties, so they can be used as a drop-in solution for substitution. Makrolon RE is mass balanced and certified according to the ISCC Plus scheme and its sustainability was demonstrat- ed in a partial life cycle analysis evaluated by TÜV Rheinland. “If all charging station housings world- wide were made from Makrolon RE instead of conventional materials, a total of around 450,000 metric tons less CO2


equivalents could be emitted


between 2022 and 2030,” says Niklas Meine, head of the global project EV Charging Stations and Marketing Electrical and Electronics in the EMEA region for Covestro. Covestro says high-performance PC material can be used in housings for electronic devices, headlights, automotive parts, and other high-value applications. Ineos supplies Covestro with two mass-balanced, CO2


IMAGE: COVESTRO 14 INJECTION WORLD | May 2023


reduced raw materials from its


Invirdis product range, which Covestro uses to produce its Makrolon RE, Bayblend RE, Maroblend RE and Apec RE materials as part of its CQ family of


www.injectionworld.com


IMAGE: X2F


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