AUTOMOTIVE MATERIALS

Our nonwovens have a proven track record in automotive. They have been used effectively to fulfil a wide range of functions, including delivering the right aesthetic finish, providing a friction resistant substrate and more recently to provide EMI shielding and fire protection in EV composite battery enclosures.

Some typical applications include:

• Surface finish – TFP nonwovens provide a high quality, resin rich surface finish to a composite. Used extensively as surfacing veils, they minimise print through and potentially reduce the amount of further processing required.
• Electronic and Electrical systems – Metal coated nonwovens are incorporated into electronics enclosures to shield against electromagnetic interference (EMI).
• Fire protection – Fire protection for mufflers, batteries, engines, catalytic converters and body interior panels. Our Tecnofire® materials have been used by NABI to provide fire protection for composite buses.
• Brakes and transmissions – Abrasion resistant aramid provides an ideal substrate for friction parts, where it is used as a coating base for clutch, brake and automatic transmission systems.
• Chassis and frame – Dielectric nonwovens are used to provide a lightweight, effective barrier to galvanic corrosion, a common and destructive problem when aluminium or other metals come into contact with carbon fibre. This enables both composite and aluminium components to be used in the latest lighter weight vehicles.
• Power – As a GDL substrate, a key component of a hydrogen fuel cell, our carbon nonwovens enable the next generation of vehicles.

EV BATTERY ENCLOSURES

The latest application for our nonwovens in automotive is in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) where they can facilitate the move from the use of metal to composite in battery enclosures, this is necessary in order to achieve the larger, protective structures required whilst still ensuring they are lightweight.

The use of composites rather than the traditional metal in this application does present a number of challenges. Firstly, the structure must still meet the necessary fire and thermal management requirements, whilst also providing shielding to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Our conductive and intumescent nonwovens provide the solution to both these issues and can be incorporated directly into the composite structure to provide this required functionality. All the details are in our dedicated webinar, below, which is presented by Neil Gray and Mike Campbell. They discuss the key fire tests and shielding requirements and how these can be met, as well as presenting some case studies from Forward Engineering and TRB Lightweight Structures.