MATERIALS | ENGINEERING THERMOPLASTICS
surface, but there is no melting, and the reverse side is largely undamaged. “We think this is of a lot of interest for EV battery
producers, for use inside the battery itself, to provide a flame barrier between one area of the battery and another, as a second line of defence after the electronic battery management system,” said van Duijvenboode. In China, norms call for materials that allow at
least 5 minutes for occupants to escape from a vehicle in which a fire started. It is expected that the same requirement will be adopted around the world, and future requirements could be even more stringent.
Above: A new hybrid plastic/metal cooling plate developed by DuPont Mobility & Materials and automotive Tier 1 Novares
Battery options Staying with the subject of sustainability, but looking further downstream, new developments for electric vehicle components were everywhere at K2022. For example, Ascend’s Starflam X-Protect was developed principally to reduce the risk of thermal runaway in EV batteries. Ascend has carried out tests on plaques 3 mm thick to show the effect of a direct flame (the Powerplant Fire Penetration Test uses a 1.4-kW burner producing a 1,100°C flame) on different materials. The first one is a regular flame retardant V-0 polyamide containing glass fibres; the second one is made from X-Protect (also glass reinforced); the third one is made from aluminium. The first and the third plaques rupture (melt)
after little over two minutes and four minutes respectively, while the second plaque in X-Protect resists until the flame is turned off after the regula- tion time of 15 minutes. A char forms on the first
Less noise in EVs Another novelty from Ascend is Vydyne AVS (Anti-Vibration Systems). This provides damping for high-frequency noise sources in EVs (the compres- sor, for example), which in general are much quieter than ICE Vehicles (far less noise from the motor/engine, and also less noise from air passing around the car, since EVs need to have a very low drag coefficient to extend their range). It already features on the Cadillac Lyriq, described by one automotive magazine as “crypt quiet”. A typical component in Vydyne AVS is a bracket
attaching the compressor to the body-in-white; this would normally be made in cast aluminium, which is heavier, and transmits more vibration, owing to its rigidity. Tests at Cadillac showed that a version in the new material cuts noise by 80% (7dB), com- pared to a bracket in regular PA66. The effect is achieved by modification of the backbone of the polymer, rather than through compounding.
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IMAGE: DUPONT
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