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Underscoring its commitment to support the greener vehicle goal of The Ford Motor Company, BASF Corporation (Florham Park, NJ) is supplying a polyamide (PA) 6 resin for selected air intake manifold (AIM) programs that includes the addition of post consumer recycled resin to the traditionally prime base polyamide. This customized grade, exclusive to North America, will be adopted on three of Ford's current production engines.

PlasticsToday Staff

August 19, 2011

2 Min Read
Air intake manifolds with a green hue

Underscoring its commitment to support the greener vehicle goal of The Ford Motor Company, BASF Corporation (Florham Park, NJ) is supplying a polyamide (PA) 6 resin for selected air intake manifold (AIM) programs that includes the addition of post consumer recycled resin to the traditionally prime base polyamide. This customized grade, exclusive to North America, will be adopted on three of Ford's current production engines.

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It's all green under the good at Ford with an air intake manifold incorporating recycled polyamide.

"Whenever technically possible, we are introducing recycled materials into our current production components," says Jeff Kosko, Engineering Supervisor for Intake Systems at Ford Motor Co. (Detroit). "Ford's 'reduce, reuse and recycle' commitments are part of its broader global sustainability strategy to reduce its environmental footprint.  In 2009, Ford reduced the amount of automotive-related plastics to landfills by nearly 30 million pounds and saved approximately $4.5 million by reusing recycled materials," he adds.

The PA resin manifolds appear in the 2.5-liter I-4 engine for the Ford Fusion and Ford Escape; the 5.0-liter V-8 engine used in vehicle models including F-Series trucks and Mustang; and the 6.2-liter V-8 engine for the F-Series. Tier 1 Suppliers Montaplast (Morsbach, Germany) (2.5-L), and Mahle (Stuttgart, Germany) (6.2-L and 5.0-L), are producing the manifolds.

"By converting metal components to plastic, Montaplast has been involved in reducing vehicle weight and improving environmental impact since the very beginning.  It's what we do. We are proud to support Ford's efforts," says Michael Alexander, Montaplast's Program Manager for the project.  "This cooperative effort between Ford, BASF and Mahle, is yet another example of innovation, this time in the area of sustainability.  Thanks to Ford for their leadership on this project," says John Mammarella, responsible for Air Intake Modules North America for Mahle.

Ford, its Tier 1 suppliers, and BASF invested significant engineering resources and processing know-how to ensure that the designs for the manifolds using recycled polyamide material would be robust enough to withstand the harsh heat and chemical environments found underhood. This is in addition to the traditional plastics advantages of weight reduction of as much as 40 percent and enhanced fuel economy and engine performance compared with cast aluminum air intake manifolds.

As part of Ford's Aligned Business Framework, BASF is in a small circle of preferred strategic suppliers with whom Ford has strengthened collaboration and developed a sustainable business model to drive mutual profitability and technology development. BASF recognizes that the alignment of both companies' strategic interests and mutual success result from rigorous delivery of innovation, quality, best lifecycle costs, sustainability and performance.-[email protected]

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