DSM’s bio-based high performance EcoPaXX polyamide 410 has been selected by Dytech-Dynamic Fluid Technologies for the fuel vapour separators it produces for Ferrari and Maserati sports cars. The halogen-free flame retardant EcoPaXX grade Q-KGS6, will increase the fire safety of the cars by combining flame retardancy with a high level of chemical resistance.
The fuel vapour separator is a key element of the complete fuel delivery system in road vehicles. It separates vapours from liquid fuel coming out from the fuel tank, and prevents the liquid fuel reaching — and contaminating — the fuel vapour canister. This prevents the evapourating fumes from reaching the atmosphere while also maintaining proper fuel tank pressures.
While fuel lines themselves have a coextruded outer cover in a flame retardant thermoplastic, fuel vapour separators are most often still made from a non-flame-retardant polyamide. Dytech Dynamic Fluid Technologies, based just outside Turin, Italy, now part of Tokai Rubber Industries Ltd group, develops and supplies fuel delivery components and systems for many of the world’s leading automotive companies. Dytech chose the innovative halogen-free flame retardant EcoPaXX to meet increasing fire safety requirements as well as a wide range of other demanding requirements for the application.
EcoPaXX is highly resistant and impermeable to conventional gasoline fuel (E10) as well as to the more sustainable E85 fuel, says DSM. In the SHED (Sealed Housing for Evapourative Determination) test, EcoPaXX fuel vapour separators showed a very low permeation level for E10, of 0.002 grams/24 h. EcoPaXX Q-KGS6 has a UL 94 V-0 flammability rating of 0.7 mm.
EcoPaXX can be used continuously at a maximum temperature of 175°C. The engineering grade also passed tube extraction and impact tests after thermal and fuel aging, as well as fatigue resistance.
“We have been very impressed by the performance we have obtained from the new EcoPaXX fuel vapour separators,” said Mario Zasa, Research & Development at Dytech. “Our customers make some of the most prestigious cars on the road, and they call for top quality solutions from their suppliers. Working with DSM, we have succeeded again in meeting their demands.”
DSM claims that its engineering plastics are increasingly being used in various elements of automotive and non-automotive fuel systems. For example, another grade of EcoPaXX, Q-HG6, has been tested successfully in automotive fuel line quick couplings, and Akulon Fuel Lock, a special grade of polyamide 6 for injection and blow moulding applications, provides resistance to permeation without the need for additives or post-moulding treatments in compressed natural gas tanks.