Automotive | materials


Handling heat under the hood


As traditional car engines continue to get smaller and hotter, and as electric drives take an increasingly important place in the market, plastics suppliers are moving to accommodate growing demand for materials that are more thermally resistant and also flame retardant. At the same time, they are also providing more lightweighting solutions for engine compartment applications, with new grades that can be used for parts with thinner walls and more complicated geometries, and which have increased potential to replace cast metals. “The advent of electric vehicles will create many new opportunities for polymers in under-the-hood applica- tions,” says Kelly Wessner, transportation marketing director, Specialty Engineered Materials, at compounder PolyOne. In March 2017, she notes, sales of electric vehicles (fully electric or hybrid) sold in the US hit 18,107, the first time monthly sales passed 18,000 and the 18th consecutive month of sales growth. According to cleantech information and communications technology company FleetCarma, almost 45,000 electric vehicles were sold in the first quarter of the year in the US – a 73.9% increase over Q1 2016. (Even with this rapid demand growth though, the US remains the third largest market for these vehicles, behind China and Europe.) But while demand growth is high, electric vehicles


still must overcome doubts about performance –particu- larly driving range – to grow from a niche to the mainstream, Wessner notes. Solutions almost certainly will include strong, lightweight polymers. “For PolyOne,


www.injectionworld.com


The engine compartment is a hostile place for thermoplastics, as they must perform in higher operating temperatures, in smaller spaces and deliver cost and weight savings, writes Peter Mapleston


that means interest is high among electric vehicle manufacturers in its advanced composites, including thermoset and thermoplastic continuous fibre solutions, and its OnForce LFT long fibre reinforced and reSound NF natural fibre reinforced materials,” she says. Increasing the range of electric vehicles poses more


challenges than simply reducing weight, Wessner notes though. “For example, polymers used in under-the- hood applications must contend with supercharged batteries. We are seeing increased demand for flame retardant materials in under-the-hood applications as batteries become bigger, and more power-dense.” Managing heat from the batteries also is a concern;


here, thermally conductive polymers may prove an effective solution, Wessner believes. The flipside of managing heat from the batteries is managing cold temperatures, which affect battery performance and


May/June 2017 | INJECTION WORLD 21


Main image: DSM has


developed its ForTii MX


grades of PPA as a cost-effec- tive alternative to die-cast


metal parts in cars


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