Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, SAE World Congress, Lightweight
SAE Congress '08: Rhodia's three-pronged green moves
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The Rhodia name might not get tossed around on AutoblogGreen much, but a lot of OEMs know what the company is all about. At this week's SAE World Congress in Detroit, Rhodia demonstrated its three pronged approach to making vehicles cleaner and we stopped to take a look. Rhodia's methods use advanced thermalplastics instead of metals on under-the-hood components to save weight, a high-heat inline diesel particulate filter and low-rolling resistance tires that use evenly-distributed silica.
We spoke with Frederic Hebert, plastics engineering North American zone product line manager, and the themalplastics are what he knew most about. Hebert said that using the thermal plastics wouldn't just save weight in a vehicle - and get the corresponding fuel gains - but Rhodia's products are also cheaper than traditional metals. In his estimation, thermal plastics would usually cost between 50 and 75 percent less than metal. The DPF was developed with Inergy, and uses 1.7 liters of Eolys additive to clean the exhaust for 250,000 kms. Listen to Hebert in the audio clip below and check out the Rhodia display in the gallery.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Whopper 12:34PM (4/15/2008)
The correct term, Sebastian, is thermOplastic. Thermoplastics melt as specific temperatures "set up" when they cool. They will re-melt at that temperature (approximately) and can therefore be recycled and molded again. Thermoset plastics differ in that they are heated, formed into the desired shape, and heated further to "set up". Thermoset plastics tend to have a higher temperature tolerance than thermoplastic materials but are slightly more time consuming and difficult to process. The use of plastics under the hood is not new. The use of "engineered plastics" has a long history. Plastic intake manifolds and valve covers go back to the 1970's.
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Kevin Nugent 10:38PM (4/15/2008)
Interesting ....... it wud be nice if all manufacturers adopted this techonology . But bo they are all too stubborn
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