LANXESS has announced it will focus on materials for new forms of mobility, at Fakuma 2018.
LANXESS expects the number of electric and electronic components in the automobile of the future to rise sharply.
The specialty chemicals company says it is also focusing on the possibility of replacing the currently expensive polyamide 66 with polyamide 6 and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) compounds.
LANXESS
LANXESS-Tower
Polyamide 6 compounds instead of polyamide 66 compounds
LANXESS will be presenting its new Durethan Performance product range for the first time at Fakuma.
The polyamide 6 material grades are several times more resistant to fatigue under pulsating loads than standard products with the same glass fibre content.
Static mechanical properties, such as tensile strength at higher temperatures has also been improved.
Potential applications include air-intake systems, oil-filter modules, parking brakes and furniture-locking systems and housings for power tools.
High transparency in the near-infrared wavelength range
LANXESS has developed new polyamide 6, polyamide 66, and PBT compounds especially for complex formed components that are manufactured in series by laser transmission welding.
They have a high level of transparency with laser light from the near-infrared range, which is used in this joining process.
“With these products, we are responding to the growing demand for housings for sensors, control units, and display systems, which are needed for applications ranging from driver assistance systems to autonomous driving,” explained Jan Bender, Head of Marketing EMEA in the High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit.
Flame-retardant compounds make electric vehicles safer
LANXESS has developed a broad range of halogen-free flame-retardant polyamides and polyesters with advantages, such as high long-term thermal resistance, tracking resistance, or low corrosion tendency in contact with live components.
At Fakuma, for example, the company will be presenting a glass fibre reinforced PBT compound that achieves excellent results in glow wire tests on finished components (GWEPT, glow wire flammability test for end products, IEC 60695-2-11). It is also suitable for applications in unattended household appliances according to IEC 60335-1 (“no flame”).
Substituting polyamide 66 compounds with PBT compounds
Another product highlight in halogen-free flame-retardant PBT is the unreinforced Pocan BFN2502. It exhibits a high elongation at break of more than seven percent, and is particularly suitable for components that must be dimensionally stable and permanently electrically insulating.
It is suitable for substituting unreinforced polyamide 66 compounds with halogen-containing flame-retardant packages.
Polyamides for air ducts of supercharged engines
Another focus of LANXESS’s work is on newer material developments for blow-moldable polyamides for air ducts in supercharged engines.
Bender added:“We want to show which advantages our polyamide and polyester compounds and our endless fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites offer, especially for components for the electric power train, but also for the infrastructure of electric mobility.”
