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Plastic air intake manifolds (AIM) have had much success for the past 20 years, steadily replacing metal parts. Today, almost 50% of cars are equipped with plastic AIM, about 80% in Europe and the US. The only plastic material currently used for this application are glass fibre reinforced polyamides (mainly PA66 GF35 and PA6 GF30).
Some of the key factors driving the uptake in use of plastic AIMs are:
Better technical functionality (optimised air flow),
Greater design freedom (integration of functions),
Reduction in weight,
Lower cost.
Equally important to the challenges facing Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) is the fact that the overall working and peak temperatures have increased under the bonnet over the last decades, resulting in performance limitations offered by standard polyamides.
In the future, OEMs will need materials that can handle even tougher requirements, such as increased integration of functions and modularity, optimised acoustic behaviour and better cost efficiency for the whole system.
Other criteria which OEMs will need to meet include:
Lower system cost than existing solution with PA6 GF30,
Better acoustic behaviour,
No significant change in tool and part design,
Meet the relevant part tests in real life usage without changing any
specifications.
Moreover, this criteria for OEM parties is not always pertinent to Tier 1 manufacturers. Tier 1 producers will require strong technical support from raw material suppliers concerning:
Optimisation of material (long term high heat stabilisation),
After moulding processes (vibration welding, inserting, direct screwing,
pressure tests),
CAED support for filling analyses and structural optimisation.
Delivering high performance PP for air intake manifolds
Borealis is the only supplier offering high performance polypropylenes (PP) for air intake manifolds.
We are far ahead of potential PP competitors both in material development and application know-how. Our PP compound composition is unique and has been patented.
Borealis Xmod High Performance Glass Fibre (HPGF) reinforced polypropylene (36% glass content) for air intake manifolds offers:
Benefits for Tier 1
Overall lower production cost resulting from:
Material price and lower density,
Less energy consumption (no pre-drying necessary, lower processing
temperatures),
Image increase as an innovator (first AIM produced in Polypropylene
worldwide).
Benefits for OEM
Cheaper system solution which fulfils 100% of the required specifications
like before with PA,
15% weight reduction,
Significant better acoustic behaviour,
First OEM with an AIM made of High Performance PP.
Benefits for end user
Better acoustic behaviour and noise reduction,
Weight reduction, lowering fuel consumption and contributing to environment
protection.
Take a closer look at our product grades for air intake manifolds or contact us for additional information on how Borealis can help you.
Borealis produces a tailor made Borecene™ polyethylene (PE) resin that is ideal for diesel fuel tanks, particularly when rotational moulding is the desired conversion technique.
Rotational moulding is often preferred to blow moulding in cases of small production runs or when complex tank designs are required. By using rotational moulding over the blow moulding conversion process, customers are able to make full use of the limited space available inside a vehicle or to integrate functional components.
Compared to metal fuel tanks, plastic solutions provide a significant weight savings, as well as better fuel economy and a lower environmental impact.
Materials that make the difference
Borecene plastic solutions exceed the ECE-34 test regulations for plastic diesel fuel tanks. Moreover, their mechanical performance and diesel permeation are superior to conventional polyethylene grades.
Borecene is the preferred choice for diesel fuel tanks because it:
lowers permeability to hydrocarbon fuels,
improves mechanical properties before and after exposure to fuel,
lessens swell on exposure to fuel,
offers better surface finish,
gives very good flowability for design flexibility,
lowers explosion risk compared to metal and aluminium tanks,
does not corrode like metal tanks.
Browse our range of Borecene product grades for diesel fuel tanks.
In striving to continuously improve vehicle performance, automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) place increasingly higher demands on the materials used for vital components.
Central to virtually all vehicle functions those demands extend to automotive wiring, which is expected to deliver higher temperature resistance,greater flexibility and contribute to vehicle weight reduction, as well as production cost savings.
Performance supporting automotive progress
To meet these progressively tougher criteria, Borealis offers a complete range of peroxide and irradiation crosslinkable polyethylene (XLPE) flame retardant compounds specifically developed to provide optimal automotive primary wiring solutions. All grades have a successful track record in the market.
Borealis' XLPE solution offer a range of benefits to the automotive OEM and manufacturer. These advantages include:
Halogen free flame retardancy; temperature performance from -40C to 125
C,
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J-1127 and SAE J-1128
compliance,
Non-tarnishing characteristics,
Excellent heat stability and easy extrusion,
Easy colourability.
Find out more by consulting our recommended product grades for automotive cables.
Borealis has developed a tailor-made polyproplyene (PP) grade for injection moulded battery cases. This material has been designed specifically for high-end battery segments where the use of conventional polypropylenes is not acceptable.
Our BC545MO is ideally suited for injection moulded battery cases,
providing an optimum combination of mechanical properties such as
durability and surface appearance. This polypropylene plastic solution is
approved for use by major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in Europe
and delivers the following benefits:
Excellent impact-stiffness ratio,
Very good heat stability due to tailor made additivation,
Very good surface appearance due to low stress whitening.
Learn more about our product grades intended for battery cases in lightweight vehicles.
Fans and shrouds used for the main engine cooling system are complex in their function and therefore have to meet different requirements.
All fans in this application field today are made in glass fibre reinforced polyamide (PA) grades because dimensional stability at high speed and reduced warpage are extremely important for ventilator wheels.
The choosen material for shrouds depends on the specific function which the part has to fulfil. Here, glass fibre/mineral-filled PA is currently the material of choice, although recycled PA (from fibre production), glass fibre PP and even talc-filled PP are also used.
As producers are under extreme cost pressures, easy processing is vital for such demanding mouldings. Based on some recent injection moulding trials done with our Xmod materials for shrouds, the material provides a viable alternative to PA66 glass fibre/mineral filled with our Xmod PP – GF.
Facilitating easy-processing
Borealis Xmod High Performance Glass Fibre (HPGF) reinforced polypropylene for shrouds offers:
Lower density for Xmod GD301HP: 1,15 g/cm3 -› weight saving,
Mechanical properties not dependent on humid environment,
Easier/cheaper processing.
Borealis also works in close co-operation with the OEM and Tier 1 and can offer state-of-the-art CAED engineering support.
Discover our line of product grades for fan shrouds or contact us for additional information on how Borealis can help you.
The highly integrated, extremely complicated housings for heaters and air conditioning systems must withstand shock and vibration at operating temperatures up to 70 degrees celsius in continuous service. With temperature peaks up to 120 degrees, parts must remain dimensionally stable for sealing and should resist fuel and lubricants.
Additionally, odourless, low emission resins have to ensure that the heated air from the engine does not carry an unpleasant odour into the vehicle's interior, even in a new car.
Enabling superior mechanical properties
Borealis' Borcom™ line of polypropylene resins addresses the demanding performance requirements for heating and climate control units. Although traditional talc reinforced materials provide excellent sound barrier properties which allows the heater housing unit to reduce the transmission of sound between the engine and passenger compartments, our Borcom polypropylene materials achieve weight reduction with equal mechanical properties.
In fact, Borcom outperforms benchmark materials such as PPT20/PPT40, offering:
Replacement of PPT20/ PPT40 with equal mechanics,
Similar shrinkage as PPT20/ PPT40 (fit into existing tools),
Better impact performance,
Lower density,
Lower weight,
Better fogging and odour,
Superb flowability,
Lower cycle times and processing costs,
Outperforms Overall System Cost vs PPT20/ HCPP.
Learn more on our product grades for dashboards or contact us for additional information on how Borealis can help you.
