Ascend Performance Materials will focus on electromobility and sustainability at K. The company made this announcement at a press conference in advance of the trade show.

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Elektromotoren

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Elektromobilität

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Polyamide

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Thermoplaste

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Wide Range of PA Innovations

The transformation from the combustion to the electric engine entails several imponderabilities for the plastics industry. In part, electric drives have completely different material requirements which are becoming specifically evident with the increasing use of appropriate vehicles.

In electric vehicles, the change in engine technology also entails new requirements for the plastic materials used

Flame Retardancy, Heat and Tracking Resistance of Electric Vehicles

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Elektronik

Kunststoffe

Photonik

Optik

Elektronische Bauelemente

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Drivers of Electromobility

With the change from internal combustion engines to hybrid and electric vehicles, peak operating temperatures have dropped from 135 °C to 110 °C. At the same time, the number of operating hours compared to combustion engines has increased nine-fold. This has an influence on material selection.

A Comparison of PA66 and PPA for Electric Vehicles

Higher Performance in Water

Electric vehicles can be charged not only at charging stations, but also wirelessly. Here, the energy exchange takes place between an induction coil positioned in the ground and a receiver coil mounted in the e-car.

Wireless charging could increase the range, and therefore the acceptance of electromobility.

Flame Retardant Polyamide for Inductive Charging Systems

No Cable thanks to Suitable Compounds

Due to the climate change, new fields of development and sustainability topics have come into focus along the added-value chain.

Polyamide continues to be one of the most important technical plastics in the automotive sector, where it enjoys widespread use. This not only applies for classical internal combustion vehicles, but in terms of volume will also be the case for electric vehicles.

Polyamides: Electromobility and Sustainability Boost Developments

Kunststoff-Recycling

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Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Dual Change with Polyamides

Electromobility in particular, but also many other electrical applications, are asking for ever higher demands regarding the electrical properties of thermoplastics. This raises the question of whether the polymers commonly used in this area can still meet these demands. The plastics manufacturer, Lanxess, has now investigated how suitable, for example, polyamide and polybutylene terephthalate are for use at higher voltages and temperatures.

How Suitable Are PA and PBT for High-Voltage Applications?

Polybutylenterephthalat

Against the Current

Electrical architecture in an E-car is significantly more challenging than for conventionally powered vehicles. Particularly for insulation of high-voltage (HV) components, the demands on the materials used are increasing. With specially-tailored materials for electric vehicles, challenges in automotive high-voltage technology can be overcome.

Insulation of high-voltage components in electric vehicles makes high demands on the materials used

Polyamide Specialties for Electromobility

Automotive

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

High Voltage in Cars

Electric-vehicle makers looking for fresh impetus are turning to thermoplastics, as these can be used to  improve the safety, performance and sustainability of the vehicles. Initial application areas for manufacturers can be found in a multitude of components ranging from battery cases to busbars, cooling lines and seals. Things become very interesting when material suppliers offer support in the form of CAE and injection molding analyses.

Thermoplastics play an important role in the batteries of electric vehicles. They help to keep battery temperatures in the optimal range for a long service life and high performance. 

Improving the Performance of Electric Vehicles with the Right Materials

Electric, Environmentally Friendly, Thermoplastic

The conditions in electric vehicles place high demands on the materials used. Therefore, automakers and suppliers must resort to expensive, high-performance plastics. For many applications, cost-effective alternatives are plastics whose properties have been greatly improved by means of treatment with high-energy electron beams.

Fig. 1. Crosslinked engineering plastics can be used for many different applications in electric vehicles.

Irradiation Crosslinking Replaces High-Performance Plastics with Cheaper Polymers

Strahlenvernetzung

Electron Booster for Electric Vehicles

A focal point of the Lanxess booth at the show this year will be materials for electromobility.

The demonstrator of a near-series- production housing for electric vehicle batteries is one of the highlights at  the Lanxess booth.

Demonstrator for EV Battery Housings

At K, Radici will present the Renycle product family. These engineering compounds have a variable proportion of mechanically recycled PA obtained from PIR and PCR.

Reducing weight and ensuring safety are the aims of compounds developed by Radici specifically for electromobility.

Compound

More Comprehensive  Life Cycle Analysis

The global market for PBT has recovered well from the aftermath of the corona pandemic. However, there is a lot going on among manufacturers at the moment.

PBT compounds are very much in demand for electromobility, including for parts of the battery, electric transmission and the charging infrastructure.

Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT): Demand for Products with Added Benefits

Electromobility and Sustainability Are Driving Growth

At K 2022, it was clearly shown that with suitable materials not only can CO2 emissions be reduced, but also advantages in component design achieved.

The Japanese chemical company Asahi Kasei showed its concept vehicle at K 2022. The domed roof in particular could lead to a few changes in future automobiles.

With suitable materials CO2 emissions can be reduced and advantages in component design can be achieved.

Automotive Highlights of K 2022

Thermoplastische Elastomere

Silikone

Kunststoffe, biobasiert

Biokunststoffe

Streifinger, Florian

Polymethylmethacrylat

Polycarbonat

Suitable Materials for Smart  Vehicle Design

Long fiber thermoplastic compression molding is suitable for the production of components with large surfaces such as battery enclosures for electric vehicles. However, these components place high demands on the material used.

Large-area components, like the battery cover shown, can be produced very well using direct long fiber compression molding. Optimized materials such as PA66 Mobius NPD 555 FR GF50 from Invista  are ideal for the process involved.

Two resin grades developed for long fiber thermoplastic compression molding permit the substitution of thermosetting SMC molding materials.

PA66 for Flame Retardant Large-Area D-LFT Components

Pressen von Kunststoffen

Faster Process to Safe Battery Enclosures

One of Ascend’s product ranges has demonstrated how the carbon footprint of PA can be reduced. The company has taken an additional stake in a recycler.

Instead of disposing of worn-out carpets in landfills or incinerators, recycling is a better alternative.

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Old Carpets Become New Polymers

Bio-Based PPA for Electric Vehicle Inverters

They are still few, mostly premium models, but soon most electric vehicles could come onto the market with 800 V instead of 400 V drives. High-performance polymers with the necessary thermal and electrical properties are available. But more sustainable types are needed for a truly environmentally compatible electromobility. One possibility, for example, are bio-based PPAs that are produced using renewable energy.

Special plastics are needed for the increasingly widespread 800 V drives of electric cars. Bio-based PPA, for example, represents a sustainable option.

OEMs have largely increased the range of battery electric vehicle (BEV) through battery technology advances. With that, they addressed a major consumer pain point, range anxiety. However, the new consumer pain point shifted from range anxiety to charging time. More specifically, the amount of time a consumer needs to charge the battery to get to higher ranges. The breakthrough to address charging time is 800 V technology.

Driven by the need to decrease BEV charging times, next generation 800 V electric powertrains are based on higher voltage batteries, electric motors and silicon carbide (SiC) inverters. Inverters play the critical role in BEV powertrains of converting DC power from the battery into AC power for the electric motor.

Challenges and Advantages of  800 V Technology

Consumers are accustomed to filling their gas tanks in five minutes or less. Re-charging a depleted BEV battery takes significantly longer. The shift to 800 V technology is aimed at reducing the BEV charging time. Fast charging on a 400 V battery leads to an increase of heat in the battery where the higher temperature is the result of the increased current of the DC charger and the internal resistance of the battery. Doubling the voltage from 400 to 800 enables half the current to be used which not only reduces the charging time but also addresses the thermal increase of the battery.

The shift to 800 V technology presents other tradeoffs. Systems like the inverter and the e-motor need to compensate for the higher electrical demand and are now facing increased temperatures and cooling challenges. The more demanding operating environment of e-motors and power electronics has opened the door for specialty materials like polyphthalates (PPA), polyphenyl sulfides (PPS) and polyetherether ketones (PEEK), combining enhanced thermal and chemical resistance with superior electrical insulation at elevated temperatures.

More Sustainable despite  Higher Performance

SiC inverters for 800 V operate at higher temperatures, typically 175 °C versus 150 °C as is the case for 400 V systems that utilize isolated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter technology. Typical components affected by this include power modules and busbars. Engineers must contend not only with higher temperatures, but also with better dielectric performance at elevated temperatures, and with higher flammability ratings (UL94 V0).

In addition, designers and manufacturers today are striving to find more sustainable material solutions for inverters. These higher performance and sustainability criteria have led Solvay to develop Amodel Bios PPA, a family of partially bio-based long-chain polyphthalates designed specifically for use in demanding electrical and electronic components for electromobility. The currently available material grades have a bio-based content of 22 % from renewable sources, such as castor oil, which are not competing with the food chain. The company works to increase the bio-based content to 75 % by 2025 and expects to receive mass balance accreditation according to the standardized International Sustainability & Carbon Certification regime (ISCC) soon.

For a polymer to be considered sustainable, its global warming potential (GWP) must also be low. Reducing GWP starts with building a circular value chain including the raw materials that are used to produce the polymer as well as the energy sources used in manufacturing the material. In addition to renewable feedstock, therefore, the new bio-based PPA materials are produced at a plant in Augusta, GA/USA, using 100 % electricity from renewable sources. At the same time, the site has reduced its water consumption by 15 % and its industrial waste by 50 %. Altogether, these technological advances have resulted in the lowest GWP values of all commercially available PPA resins, including bio-based products (Figs. 1 and 2).

Notwithstanding all this, components for e-motors, power electronics and other high-end electrical systems also require specific material performance. Therefore, the portfolio of the new sustainable PPA grades comprises various different grades with custom-balanced mechanical properties, high tracking resistance (CTI) and UL94 V0 rated, halogen-free flame retardancy (Table).

In particular, Amodel Bios exhibits the highest glass transition temperature (Tg 135 °C) of all bio-based PPA materials in the market and offers a melt temperature (Tm) of 315 °C. As an injection molding material, it is an ideal candidate for parts in the cooling circuit of power electronics as well for blister-free reflow soldered surface mount devices (SMD) on circuit boards.

Next to a product for surface mounted thin-wall connectors, the family includes several HFFR grades with a UL94 V0 rating at >120 °C heat resistance and CTI >600 V. They minimize the risk of uncontrolled thermal excursion as well as corrosion of electronics.

These properties are complemented by lower moisture take-up versus standard PPA, which results in enhanced dimensional stability and lower potential stress corrosion, as well as by superior impact strength, high elongation, weldline strength and surface quality. The materials can easily be colored, including the typical signal orange of BEV applications.

With Amodel Bios PPA, Solvay has developed a high-performance polymer that addresses the elevated performance and sustainability criteria for advanced applications in electromobility. By providing best-in-class GWP values, the material minimized the carbon footprint in production and thus also supports the efforts of automotive designers to reduce the indirect emissions (Global Warming Protocol, Scope 3) of their applications.

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Fig. 1. The carbon footprint of Solvay’s Amodel PPA decreased by 30 % from 2013 to 2021. 

Fig. 2. GWP values for various PPA and PA66 (values from public sources): Amodel Bios achieves the lowest value of all polymers compared.

Table. Critical properties of engineering polymers for power assemblies in electric vehicles.

KUint2-23_Solvay - Hauptartikel

More Sustainable Polymers for the 800 V Powertrain

Brian Baleno is Head of Marketing Transportation at Solvay Specialty Polymers.

Ysée Génot is Global Marketing Manager at Solvay for Sustainable Developments in Automotive.

Read the German version of the article in our magazine Kunststoffe or at <a href="https://www.kunststoffe.de/a/fachartikel/schneller-und-nachhaltiger-laden-3455686" target="_blank">www.kunststoffe.de</a>