The concept of lightweight continues to heat up, and automotive plastics "hide" many possibilities
In the context of tightening fuel economy regulations and still high battery prices, lightweight has become one of the important development trends of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and new energy vehicles. Relevant data shows that every 10% weight loss of a car can save 6% - 8% of fuel, so every 300 pounds of weight loss of a car can drive 1.6 miles more per gallon of gasoline. For new energy vehicles, reducing the vehicle weight can more effectively improve the power utilization efficiency and improve the driving experience.
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Under this general trend, it is not difficult to find that the car models using light materials to replace steel and other metal materials are more and more common in the market. For example, the fifth generation model launched by Land Rover at the end of 2016 uses an all aluminum body; The new generation MX-5 launched by Mazda uses a large number of lightweight materials; Magna has recently been revealed to have developed a sub frame prototype made of carbon fiber composite materials in cooperation with Ford; The new electric SUV of Weilai Automobile will also use various structural parts and components made of lightweight materials
The above shows the hot trend of lightweight materials. Among many lightweight materials, automotive plastics seem to be "low-key", almost imperceptibly sneaking into various automotive components. It is understood that 1kg plastic can replace 2-3kg steel and other heavier materials, with obvious lightweight effect. At present, the amount of plastic used in both exterior and interior decorations is increasing. And with the continuous improvement of the hardness, strength and tensile properties of engineering plastics, plastic windows, doors, frameworks and even more key automotive components are using plastics.
However, it is undeniable that automotive plastics are also facing an "embarrassing" situation. Automobile manufacturers originally hoped to improve fuel economy with the help of lightweight materials, but also bring some cost benefits. However, the high material prices and processing costs make it difficult to realize the economic benefits of automobile lightweight. This also makes the car enterprises particularly cautious when formulating the material lightweight plan. So, how to avoid such a situation? To sum up, it is related to the following two points:
First, the cost of materials. There is basically a consensus in the industry that it is not difficult to achieve vehicle lightweight, but there are few plans that can be put into large-scale application. Why? The key is cost. In other words, although manufacturers can reduce the weight of vehicles by 30-45% with some means, they may face very high design and reprocessing costs. Therefore, it is necessary to implement lightweight on the premise of ensuring the overall cost level.
Sumitomo Chemical Company solved this problem well. For example, the oil pipes distributed in the engine compartment of hybrid electric vehicles were usually made of metal in the past, but the company's SUMIKASUPER LCP products, that is, liquid crystal polymer materials, can transform them from metal to plastic. The most direct effect of this is that the overall weight of the oil pipes has been greatly reduced.
According to Yoshida Heying, business director of Sumitomo Chemical Corporation's functional resin business department, plastic tubing has been used in Toyota and Honda cars in Japan. According to actual results, the use of plastic has reduced the overall weight of tubing by about 70%. Moreover, unlike the complex process corresponding to the metal tube row, the plastic processing process is very simple, which also reduces the production cycle and cost to a certain extent. "According to Toyota's actual assessment, LCP is used to replace metal materials, and the cost of 10000 yen can be reduced for every 1kg reduction. That is to say, if the weight of this part is 30kg, and LCP materials are used to reduce the weight to 15kg, then the overall cost of 150000 yen can be saved. Next, we will focus on pushing this product to the domestic market, and believe that with the development of hybrid power, it will meet great demand."
The second is material development. Back to the concept of automobile lightweight, automobile lightweight actually means to reduce the overall weight of the automobile as much as possible under the premise of ensuring the strength, stiffness, mode and crash performance of the automobile body, so as to improve the power and safety of the automobile, reduce fuel consumption and reduce exhaust pollution. As far as the application of lightweight materials is concerned, this means that the vehicle lightweight is not jerry built, but an upgrade of the material itself.
In other words, in order to replace steel with plastics, the plastics used here must be comparable to, or even surpass, steel in performance, rather than being "second best". However, this will inevitably bring difficulties to the development of material suppliers. Especially, with the gradual development of new energy and hybrid electric vehicles, and against the background of more and more stringent requirements for automotive materials, how to develop materials that meet more needs is testing the relevant suppliers, which is one of the main reasons why only some material giants can make great achievements in this regard.
Taking Sumitomo Chemical as an example, its SUMIKAEXCEL PES and the SUMIKASUPER LCP mentioned above, that is, PES and liquid crystal polymers, are mainly used in the more sophisticated parts of automobiles, such as automobile fog lamp shades, valve pistons, motor accessories, exhaust gas recirculation components, relays, control oil pumps, etc. Compared with ordinary automotive interior and exterior trim parts, these parts have relatively strict requirements for materials.
Among them, the control oil pump was originally made of metal aluminum, but now some European manufacturers are using PES instead of metal aluminum. According to the introduction, the performance of this material is very stable. It will not change at the temperature between - 40 ℃ and 200 ℃, and can completely replace metal. Moreover, considering the processing cost of metal aluminum, the overall cost of oil pump can be reduced by 30% by using PES. It is understood that Sumitomo Chemical launched this material in March last year.
Another example is the relay, which is very useful in automobiles. People who understand automobiles know that relays have high requirements for materials, including high temperature resistance. The two materials mentioned above can just meet these requirements. It is understood that parts suppliers including Omron and Panasonic are using Sumitomo Chemical as relays for vehicle manufacturers.
According to Yoshida Heying, two materials are mainly used for relays in automobiles at present: LCP and PBT, each accounting for about half of the market share. "There are metal pins on the relay. With the increasing technical requirements, the metal pins need to go through a high temperature soldering tin process (SMT). The soldering tin temperature is 230 ℃, and the PBT material will melt immediately at this temperature. Therefore, PBT can be used where the high temperature process is not required, and high-end materials, such as LCP materials, are required for the high temperature process."
He added that Sumitomo Chemical has about 80% of the market share in automotive relays. The medium and high-end cars in Japan, Europe and the United States will basically use the company's materials, and some foreign manufacturers are also using them, and local car enterprises such as BYD will also have a certain demand for this material in high-end cars in the future.
It can be seen that, although there are still some challenges in the material cost and development of automotive plastics, plastics are still showing various possibilities under the situation of increasing automotive lightweight, which depends on the lightweight potential of plastics itself, as well as the investment of relevant enterprises in material development.
In addition, it is worth noting that in October 2016, the Society of Automotive Engineering of China released the Technical Roadmap for Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles. The road map points out that by 2020, 2025 and 2030, the vehicle weight needs to be reduced by 10%, 20% and 35% respectively compared with 2015. For automobile enterprises, automobile lightweight is becoming more and more practical, and there is no doubt that the prospect of automotive plastics is becoming more and more clear.
