BASF has reported new durability test results for a glass fiber-reinforced, low-halogen Ultramid polyamide grade aimed at eMobility under-hood components exposed to coolant. EV operating profiles and frequent battery charging processes increase the required service life of plastics in vehicles under the hood to 45,000 to 55,000 hours at operating temperature, compared with 5,000 hours for conventional combustion engines.
BASF says it has adapted established ageing validation approaches from air-heat testing to hydrolysis storage, defined here as ageing in water-glycol mixtures. To predict service life under normal conditions, BASF is using Arrhenius analyses based on the Arrhenius equation, which it describes as relating temperature to reaction rate.
BASF test program started in August 2020 and evaluated a polyamide from its latest generation of materials. BASF says the Ultramid material is characterized by optimized hydrolysis resistance, laser markability, glass fiber reinforcement and low halogen content.
Based on five years of testing, BASF reports that the tested polyamide’s properties can be extrapolated to more than 100,000 hours.
Source: BASF
