With the further development of eMobility, the requirements for the ageing resistance of plastics in contact with chemicals are increasing significantly. In particular, frequent battery charging processes, which must be kept at a constant temperature, increase the required service life of plastic components in vehicles under the hood to 45,000 to 55,000 hours at operating temperature – compared to 5,000 hours for conventional combustion engines. Plastics are used in the engine compartment in pumps and valves, for example.

While the durability of the materials was previously mainly tested in air-heat environments, BASF is now transferring proven methods to hydrolysis storage – i.e. ageing in water-glycol mixtures. The Arrhenius equation is used here, which describes the relationship between temperature and reaction rate and thus makes it possible to predict the service life under normal conditions.

As part of a series of tests launched in August 2020, a polyamide from BASF’s latest generation of materials was examined. The Ultramid is characterized by optimized hydrolysis resistance, laser markability, glass fiber reinforcement and low halogen content and thus meets all the requirements of the automotive market, even in the future. The results show: The properties of the tested polyamide can be extrapolated to more than 100,000 hours after five years of testing and provide the automotive industry in the car and truck sector with the necessary security.