Lanxess develops thermoplastic composites for underbody products

It is important to ensure that vehicles are fitted with durable underbody panels for driving on extremely poor roads. LANXESS’s subsidiary Bond-Laminates GmbH provides fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites of the Tepex brand to enable the manufacture of virtually indestructible engine shields, fuel tank covers and center tunnel covers which were specially developed for the MLB53A platform.

They provide excellent These have been used on several standard models such as the Bentley Bentayga. In the future they will also be applied in the Audi Q7.

Harri Dittmar, Tepex applications developer says “In a trial on a rough and rocky test track, the components withstood the extreme wear and tear of the underbody hitting the surface as well as gravel impact with virtually no damage at all”. He further adds “Custom parts can be produced in the same mold as the corresponding standard vehicle components. Processors don’t need to turn other materials and can eliminate investments in additional molds and presses with higher clamping forces”.

The shields and covers for the standard and custom models are both fabricated in a compression molding process using polypropylene-based low-weight reinforced thermoplastics (LWRT). These shields and covers are manufactured by ElringKlinger Abschirmtechnik AG, based in Sevelen, Switzerland.

The top layer of Tepex significantly increases the strength, stiffness and above all the toughness of the LWRT components. Dittmar: “Because of its unique structure, LWRT additionally has a very good sound-absorbing effect, which would not have been possible with other compression molding compounds and would have meant less comfort.” 

Tepex is used in many other series applications in automotive lightweight construction and not just in car underbody panels. On account of Tepex's growing application potential LANXESS has set up a dedicated project group headed by Henrik Plaggenborg that supports partners worldwide through all stages of Tepex component development right up to production launch.