Feiplastic ’19: LANXESS sees Brazil auto programme boosting nylon demand

SAO PAULO (ICIS)–A Brazilian automobile programme should boost demand for nylon by encouraging companies to produce lighter vehicles that burn less fuel, LANXESS officials said on Monday.

The Brazilian programme, called Rota 2030, sets several goals for the nation’s automobile industry, one of which addresses fuel efficiency.

To meet these goals, automobile producers are developing vehicles that use turbo-charged engines, said Marcelo Correa, LANXESS BU high performance materials, head of marketing and sales, Latin America for LANXESS. Correa made his comments on the sidelines of Feiplastic.

Turbo-charged engines are smaller, allowing automobile producers to lighten the weight of their vehicles. That makes them burn less fuel.

However, smaller engines operate under higher temperature and pressure, increasing demand for materials such as nylon, which can tolerate such demanding conditions.

Automobile companies are already launching new engines, and Correa expects the trend to increase in the next three to four years as a result of the Rota 2030 programme.

During Feiplastic, LANXESS highlighted its XTS1 and XTS2 line of nylon. XTS1 can tolerate temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius. XTS2 can tolerate temperatures of up to 230 degrees.

Turbo-charged-engine parts that require such heat resistance include air-intake manifolds and air ducts, said Anderson Marostica, technical manager, high performance Materials, LANXESS.

In addition to turbo-charged engines, LANXESS also highlighted other uses for its nylons.

The company was the pioneer in developing automobile parts made of hybrids of nylon and metal, Correa said.

LANXESS has now developed hybrids made of nylon and nylon composites, he said. The company has a family of composite sheets that it sells under the Tepex brand name.

At the least, these hybrids can match the performance of those that incorporate metal while reducing the weight of the automobile part.

LANXESS has since developed software that can emulate the performance of these nylon and nylon-composite hybrids.

This had been difficult because nylon composites can be made of a variety of materials, such as aramids, carbon fibre and glass fibre, Marostica said. The software had to emulate this greater variety of materials.

The software also had to take into account the orientation of the fibres, since this can alter the performance of the finished part, Marostica said.

Feira Internacional do Plastico (Feiplastic) takes place on 22-26 April in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Interview article by Al Greenwood