Market Snapshot: Automotive underhood 20000

Automotive is a glamorous business—all those sleek, shiny exteriors and stylish, luxurious interiors. But what about under the hood? That’s one area that doesn’t seem to get much attention, yet it’s an area in which Tier One suppliers and molders alike are making their mark.

A recent Freedonia Group report (“Advanced Automotive Materials,” February 2003) shows that demand for advanced plastics for engine and mechanical applications in North American light vehicles is forecast to grow 4.5 percent per year, through 2006, to 785 million lb (see Figure 1). “One key emerging trend that could help drive plastics penetration in engine and mechanical applications is modular marketing, which integrates formerly separate parts that are in close proximity with each other into a single module—a trend that is well-suited for plastics,” the report notes.

Market Trendsetters
LDM Technologies (Auburn Hills, MI) has been focusing efforts on this trend, of which a side benefit is eliminating underhood clutter. Perry Palanca, director of product development for LDM Technologies, says LDM helped pioneer the “modular” movement.

“We’re trying to help facilitate that trend. We’ve been working with the underhood environment for the last five to six years, specifically on our ECO [Engine Compartment Optimization] initiative,” he explains. “The OEMs are changing the way they are designing for under the hood from a perception of quality, trying to make it more user friendly and less intimidating.”

LDM’s ECO uses reinforced high-temperature nylons and ABS to keep wires, hoses, belts, fluid containers, and other components hidden to improve the engine compartment’s appearance.

Palanca points out that there are many different functions represented under the hood, including electrical and fluidics, so that often automotive engineers must compete for space. An integrator like LDM, he says, can reduce costs and provide weight savings, ergonomics, and aesthetics through the modular approach.

Jeff Perkins, senior product engineer for Miniature Precision Components Inc. (MPC, Walworth, WI), agrees that the general trend for molders is component integration. “Basically anyone that does shoot-and-ship parts is getting cut out of the [supplier] picture,” he says. MPC’s continued success as an automotive underhood supplier has been its ability to incorporate the single components it molds into complete subsystems using value-add activities.

The downside to modular marketing, notes The Freedonia Group’s report, is that it “could also raise the cost of individual part defects, as the entire module would probably have to be scrapped, and could also make service more costly, since the entire module would likely have to be replaced if one component failed.”

Beauty and the Beast
Integrating components into a single subsystem is driven partly by manufacturing economics (ease of assembly) and partly by a desire to save space in the engine compartment. More assembly integration translates into lighter and more cost-effective systems, adds Jeff Lane, VP of marketing and sales for MPC. Lane says that one new underhood application involves “just covering things up.” These panels are sometimes called “beauty covers” or “acoustic shields.”

Unfortunately, there is a risk associated with products that cater to underhood beauty, Lane says: “It’s the first thing to go when the automotive guys decide to cut back components or implement cost savings.”

One area in which OEMs can’t skimp is the quality and durability of materials used in demanding underhood components. Still, options are expanding. High-heat- and chemical-resistant thermoplastics are taking over areas once dominated by thermoset materials, nylon, and branched PPS polymers.

TRW Automotive, a Tier One supplier, selected Solvay Advanced Polymers’ Amodel polyphthalamide (PPA), grade A-1340 HS, for the cover and housing of the coil-integrated module (CIM) that controls hydraulic assembly of the 325 Series Vehicle Stability Enhancement system on the GM Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV. The CIM is joined to the hydraulic control unit and mounted outside the passenger compartment on the vehicle’s frame, under the driver’s feet. Solvay says that given its function and location, the part demands a material with excellent stiffness and tensile strength, which the PPA provides.

Amodel PPA is also being used by Delphi Automotive Systems (Troy, MI) for an injection molded power piston in the current Gen II and the new Global series of brake vacuum boosters. The ability to handle much higher heavy-duty brake pressures and underhood temperatures was the primary reason for selecting Amodel. The 45 percent glass-reinforced PPA allowed Delphi to drastically reduce wall thickness, offering 60 percent weight savings and permitting Delphi to package components more efficiently inside the power piston.

New fuel mixtures with additives such as ethanol are creating new challenges for plastics used in fuel systems. Ticona’s linear Fortron PPS allowed one underhood component maker to replace a formed, stamped, plated, brazed, and welded steel fuel rail with a single-piece injection molded unit that saved 25 percent in weight, 30 percent in cost, and reduced labor and production steps.

Fuel system components, both under the hood and under the trunk, have some unique challenges for materials engineers. Dwight Smith, applications development engineer for the fuel systems segment at Ticona, says that the primary driver for materials applications comes from various regulatory agencies. As regulations change, older materials may be forced to retire.

Smith says that using static-dissipative materials in fuel systems is a new trend that OEMs are looking at closely. Ticona has introduced Celcon CF802 acetal copolymer, a fiber-reinforced grade with electrical dissipation capabilities. “Static-dissipative materials have been around for a while but mainly in electronics,” Smith explains. “Now to put them in fuel systems, we have to meet the emission and safety standards.”

Currently, Celcon CF802 acetal copolymer meets the requirements of the Federal Test Method for Electrostatic Properties of Materials and the SAE J1645 Fuel System Electrostatic Charge Standard. It is also approved under GM’s material specification for this application. “We’ll probably see these in use in about another year,” Smith says.