Happy New Year! Not only is it a new year, but a new decade—an exciting, yet challenging time for anyone involved in materials science. Our goal at Envalior is to provide you with best practices and application insights to help you stay current with innovations in your industry. To help you prepare for this new year and decade, we decided to create a Top 10 list of our most popular blogs from 2019.   

Crowded cities provide an opportunity for the growth of the e-scooter market, and several e-scooter components require specialized materials to ensure safe and reliable performance on traffic-clogged streets. 

The need for effective vehicle thermal management systems (TMS) is accelerating and is critical since it controls the temperature of key systems to extend service life and reduce energy consumption. Understanding the unique needs and design challenges of electric and hybrid powertrains is needed to specify a material solution.  

Manufacturers need to look beyond monolithic materials to composites. Continuous Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) composites have a long history of successful applications (in the aerospace industry). Although new to this class of materials, designers and engineers in the automotive industry are learning how CFRP composites can lower weight in applications.

The wheel has come a long way since its inception—it evolved to the use of rubber tires inflated with air, which is the incumbent technology for decades. Now it is being reinvented in a Non-Pneumatic Tire (NPT), offering uncompromised performance with a Envalior material solution. 

We are in an age where bio- and recycled-based plastics are increasingly common and sustainable, and where our continued quality of life does not need to harm our planet. With the world facing key challenges, customers around the world instinctively understand that change is necessary, and Envalior is taking the next step in our sustainability journey in engineering plastics. 

To make electric vehicles appealing to consumers, battery-charging times need to decrease. This can be done with high-voltage charging and interconnection systems. Yet high-voltage systems introduce new challenges for the materials used in the connectors.

The success of Stanyl opened a new class of materials—the high-temperature polyamides. Over the years, Envalior developed a broad product portfolio under the brand name of Stanyl—specifically for electronic connector markets and many automotive application fields. 

For decades, Envalior has worked with the world’s leading electrical and electronic (E&E) manufacturers to understand the material requirements and create engineering plastics customized for connector applications. To choose the right thermoplastic solution, we recommend focusing on five material properties. 

Chemical exposure needs to be considered in every application. Even things we may not consider as “chemical”—such as sebum or water—can have strong effects on plastic materials, depending on the temperature, concentration, and length of exposure. Accounting for chemical exposure is challenging as the material properties needed for each application vary. 

In the move to fully electric vehicles, many car manufacturers are banking on lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) as the power source. But one group of OEMs is exploring the option of hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cell tanks have traditionally been made from steel, therefore they are very heavy. Yet it is possible to create a lightweight hydrogen gas tank using engineering plastics. 

To learn more about any of these topics, or to connect with one of our subject matter experts, feel free to contact us.