Intelligent and lightweight automobiles, with reduced CO2 emission

October 17, 2019 11:55 am

Pankaj Khare, Head of Sales & Marketing, High Performance Materials, LANXESS India Pvt. Ltd. discusses on the key aspects of how automobile industry can decrease the weight of its vehicles and help to add more innovation and value.

How will you define presence of LANXESS’ in Indian market?
LANXESS India Pvt. Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, with more than 100 years of history of operations. The high performance materials (HPM) business unit of LANXESS is one of the leading suppliers of high-tech plastics for the automotive and electronic industries, operating through 7 production facilities in Europe, USA, India, China and Brazil.

In India, we have our manufacturing facility in Jhagadia, Gujarat, which was set up in 2012 and is one of the biggest engineering polymers compounding plant in India with annual capacity of 20,000 tons. With a wide range of high performance materials under brands namely Durethan® and Pocan®, we at LANXESS, develop solutions that are making vehicles lighter and safer. LANXESS’ hybrid technology combines plastics with metals, which has already been implemented in several vehicle models worldwide. This technology constitutes intelligent lightweight construction with outstanding component properties, which reduces both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

What are the solutions and services offered in automotive sector by LANXESS?
LANXESS is a leading solution provider for the automotive sector in the field of light-weighting. Our R&D setup in Hong Kong gives credence to our overall capabilities at work in strengthening the material setup, prototyping, computer simulation, component testing and validation and knowledge sharing.
Thanks to our efficient production facilities and intensive product and application development, we are one of the most competitive solution providers in the field. The production of Durethan® and Pocan® is further supported by our manufacture of strategically relevant intermediate products. Our facilities in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Hamm-Uentrop and Antwerp, are among the largest of their kind, produce caprolactam, polyamide 6, polybutylene terephthalate and glass fibres on world scale assets.

Our most important brands & products are:
Durethan®, engineering plastics based on polyamide 6 and 66 are used in the automotive and electrical/electronic industries
Pocan®, engineering plastics based on polybutylene terephthalate and blends are used in the electrical/electronics and automotive industries as well as medicine, sports and recreation.

Where can LANXESS add value to customers (like light-weighting) and other industry trends to add value?
The Indian OEMs are opting for better technical support in their endeavor to reduce weight, offer better quality, improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. With the increase in demand for quality products, we see a good potential for quality engineering plastics and related services in the Indian market.

LANXESS not only offers world class engineering polymer solutions, but also supports in the area of expertise and knowledge to enable auto OEMs to convert metal parts to plastics without diluting the specifications. There is a huge potential in both the passenger car as well as the two wheeler segments. We have been in the passenger car segment for many years. In India, we have been working with major two wheeler manufacturers in order to convert many metal parts like grab handle, foot rest, air intake manifold, fenders, cylinder head cover etc. to plastics. Following are a few examples of light-weighting success stories in automotive as well as two-wheeler industry.

Engine oil pans: In this particular application, polyamide offers an alternative to aluminium, sheet steel and sheet molding compounds (SMC). One variant of the oil pan is made of the heat stabilized polyamide 66 Durethan® AKV 35 H2.0 filled with 35 percent glass fibres, while another is manufactured using the corresponding easy-flow polyamide 6 grade Durethan® BKV 35 EF H2.0. This has been used in trucks manufactured by Daimler. The oil pan module for the new six-cylinder boxer engines of the Porsche 911 Carrera, is being manufactured using Durethan® (made from polyamide 6) from LANXESS. The oil pan module has been developed in close collaboration between POLYTEC and Porsche. Polyamide 6 has helped to reduce the weight of the upper and lower sections of the oil pan. Overall, the oil pan is more than 2 kg lighter than its aluminium predecessor, due to the lower density of the plastic and the optimised wall thicknesses.

Front end module: Passenger car front end carriers can now be designed exclusively of plastic, as illustrated by the new Skoda Octavia. The vehicle’s front end carrier is made of Durethan BKV 60 H2.0 EF, a highly reinforced polyamide (PA) 6 from LANXESS (Leverkusen, Germany) with 60 per cent glass-fibre filling. This structural component is notable in that it contains absolutely no sheet-metal reinforcement. We have the extremely high stiffness and strength of our high-tech polyamide to thank for this achievement. It permits the intricate, thin-wall design of the carrier.

Spare wheel recess: The spare wheel recess with integrated reinforcing channels in the new Audi A8 is made of Durethan® DP BKV 60 H2.0 EF, a highly filled polyamide 6 from LANXESS with 60 per cent glass fibres. Our polyamide 6 is the material of choice because it enables precise injection molding of the part’s complex geometry. It would be very difficult to make the component from sheet metal due to the limited space available and the high draw ratios. Our plastic also enables direct integration of numerous functions. The spare wheel recess is made by Voestalpine Plastics Solutions, a company based in the Dutch town of Putte.

What is LANXESS’s contribution towards the 2-wheeler industry?
The two wheeler industries of India are very strong and considering this, we have developed some unique applications over the years. Our first single layer blow molded PA6 fuel tank for two-wheeler was developed last year in India, for Bajaj KTM. Their requirements were very unique, as Bajaj KTM was to export these bikes to US where EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) norms on permeability were so stringent that normal fuel tanks in HDPE could not serve the purpose. This is where the polymer solutions provider like LANXESS comes into picture. Our grade Durethan® BC 550Z 900116 DUSXBL, not only fitted the specification well but also offered a higher impact strength, excellent mechanical properties, high processability and good mechanical strength. This grade has outstanding low permeability against gasoline which is 0.2 gm.m^2/day and also has good resistance to swelling (less than 1per cent) for non-ethanol blended fuels.

What are USPs and advantages of LANXESS to compete in the market? –
Known for its backward integration, the HPM business unit prides in offering high-end solutions to its stakeholders. More than 40 million hybrid components in 70 vehicle classes can now be found on roads around the world. In many countries, metal car parts like air intake manifolds, oil module, door handles, oil pans, coolant water pipes, fuel tank, thermostat housing, fuel rail, roof frames, accelerator & brake pedal blocks etc. have been successfully replaced with Durethan® and Pocan® from LANXESS.

Thanks to our efficient production facilities and intensive product and application development processes, we are one of the prominent suppliers in our field. The HPM compounding plant in Jhagadia, Gujarat has a total capacity of 20000MT and produces Durethan®, engineering plastics based on polyamide 6 and 66 and Pocan®, engineering plastics based on polybutylene terephthalate. The customer is also provided with computer-aided simulation, testing and validation of auto parts, from our technology center in Hongkong and is also supported in process optimisation.

What is the long-term vision and plans of LANXESS for Indian market?
We are focused on innovative materials for applications in the automotive, two-wheelers & electrical/electronics industry, where we are working on optimised, tailor-made grades; for instance, highly reinforced polyamides for mechanically stressed parts, new materials for LED components and hydrolysis-stabilised PBT for engine compartment parts.

We are also a leading supplier of light-weighting technology to the automotive industry. As automotive manufacturers have gradually shifted their focus from just using metals to using metals combined with plastics, LANXESS’ Durethan® plastic compounds can already be found in car parts in combination with steel or aluminum. We have already achieved the preferred automotive raw materials supplier status with most of the Tier I automotive manufacturers and we want to replicate the same in the two wheeler industry as well as electrical & electronics industry.

With the increase in demand for light weight quality products, we see a good potential for quality engineering plastics & related services in the Indian market.
Pankaj Khare, Head of Sales & Marketing, High Performance Materials, LANXESS India Pvt. Ltd.