LANXESS
New PBT compound for electric car battery components / Joint development with Hella
 Housing made from the new "Pocan" material (Photo: Lanxess) |
German speciality chemicals group Lanxess (Cologne; www.lanxess.com) has developed a new PBT compound together with automotive supplier Hella (Lippstadt / Germany; www.hella.de). The compound, called "Pocan AF4130", serves as a housing material for a battery management unit (BMU) and two cell monitoring units (CMUs). Pocan AF4130 is a blend of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and acrylic ester-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA), and contains 30% by weight glass fibres and a halogen-based flame retardance package.
"The particular advantages of the material are its extremely low warpage and shrinkage, combined with its high flame retardance," says Marc Marbach, head of Sales Segments E&E in the High Performance Materials unit. "We see great potential for application in precision components for vehicle battery systems." To go from the initial idea to full-scale production, it took two-and-a-half years. Hella produces the BMU and CMUs for a German manufacturer of battery systems for cars.
The housings for the BMU and CMUs have large, flat surfaces and complex geometries along the edges and on the inside. They can also be injection moulded as single components. In UL 94 fire testing, from US testing company Underwriters Laboratories, the material has the best classification of V-0 (0.75 mm) and a good classification of UL 94 5VA (1.5 mm) on the UL Yellow Card.
Surfaces made of the Pocan AF4130 thermoplastic are low-emission, shown by thermal desorption analyses done by Lanxess, in accordance with the VDA 278 test (German association of the automotive industry). Marbach notes that the material is suitable for many vehicle applications requiring low volatile and condensable emissions, such as car interior components.
The compound has good resistance to typical media, such as fuels, oils, cleansers and car care products. This was shown in media storage tests conducted by Lanxess for Hella in accordance to standard LV 124, which is used by many automotive manufacturers. It is also resistant to a widely used electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries, as shown in a test carried out under load (DIN EN 22088-3).
"The particular advantages of the material are its extremely low warpage and shrinkage, combined with its high flame retardance," says Marc Marbach, head of Sales Segments E&E in the High Performance Materials unit. "We see great potential for application in precision components for vehicle battery systems." To go from the initial idea to full-scale production, it took two-and-a-half years. Hella produces the BMU and CMUs for a German manufacturer of battery systems for cars.
The housings for the BMU and CMUs have large, flat surfaces and complex geometries along the edges and on the inside. They can also be injection moulded as single components. In UL 94 fire testing, from US testing company Underwriters Laboratories, the material has the best classification of V-0 (0.75 mm) and a good classification of UL 94 5VA (1.5 mm) on the UL Yellow Card.
Surfaces made of the Pocan AF4130 thermoplastic are low-emission, shown by thermal desorption analyses done by Lanxess, in accordance with the VDA 278 test (German association of the automotive industry). Marbach notes that the material is suitable for many vehicle applications requiring low volatile and condensable emissions, such as car interior components.
The compound has good resistance to typical media, such as fuels, oils, cleansers and car care products. This was shown in media storage tests conducted by Lanxess for Hella in accordance to standard LV 124, which is used by many automotive manufacturers. It is also resistant to a widely used electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries, as shown in a test carried out under load (DIN EN 22088-3).
10.08.2017 Plasteurope.com [237580-0]
Published on 10.08.2017
German version of this article...