AutoPartsAsia | AUGUST 2017 | 59T
ata Motors and Mahle, one
of the world’s 20 largest
suppliers to the automotive
industry, have signed
a joint development agreement
for designing and developing
a Secondary Loop Mobile Air
Conditioning System (SL–MAC),
under the aegis of the Nations
Environment.The two automotive companies,
along with the Institute for
Governance and Sustainable
Development (IGSD), which is
coordinating the project, received
funding for developing the SL-MAC
system from the Climate and Clean
Air Coalition to reduce short-lived
climate pollutants, a global initiative
to support fast action and make a
difference in the areas of climate,
public health, and food and energy
security.This envisages use and trial of
environment friendly, low global
warming potential refrigerants
HF01234yf (ASHRAE A2L) and HFC-
152a (ASHRAE A2).The prototype will be tested on
the Indian roads later in the third
quarter of 2017, where long seasons
of hot and humid weather and
stop-start driving conditions make
a secondary loop air conditioning
system highly advantageous.A team comprising representatives
of the California Air Resources
Board, the Mobile Air Conditioning
Society Worldwide (MACS), the
National Renewable Energy Lab
(NREL), Mahle, Tata Motors,
and IGSD reviewed the newly
constructed SL-MAC system and the
prototype at the Mahle Behr facility
in Lockport, New York, USA, on 7
April 2017.A Tata vehicle based on a new
generation platform for utility
vehicles, consisting of a more
complex architecture with front
and rear air conditioning system,
has been selected for this joint
development programme. The SL–
MAC system will first be installedin the Tata utility vehicle as a
prototype. In the SL-MAC system,
the alternative refrigerants first cool
a secondary fluid/coolant, which
in turn cools the air to comfortable
temperatures inside the vehicle
cabin.
This process allows the safe use
of slightly flammable refrigerants
that have a low GWP and in turnachieves high cooling capacity,
minimizing the losses and achieving
an optimized overall thermodynamic
efficiency in the process.
This is in contrast to the
conventional mobile AC system,
where the cabin air is directly
cooled by the refrigerant HFC-134a,
which is ozone safe but has a high
GWP.GLEANINGS India
S
pecialty chemicals company LANXESS has developed a new
compound called Pocan AF4130 which serves as a housing
material for a battery management unit (BMU) and two cell
monitoring units (CMU). It has been developed in collaboration
with HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co., based in Lippstadt, Germany.
“The particular advantages of the material are its extremely low
warpage and shrinkage, combined with its high flame retardance. We
see great potential for application in precision components for vehicle
battery systems,” Marc Marbach, Head of Sales Segments E&E in the
LANXESS High Performance Materials (HPM) Business Unit, said.
The blend of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and acrylic ester-styrene-
acrylonitrile (ASA) contains 30 percent by weight glass fibres and a
halogen-based flame retardance package. It took just two-and-a-half
years to go from the initial idea to extensive testing and finally to use in
full-scale production.
HELLA fabricates the BMU and CMUs for a German manufacturer of
battery systems for motor vehicles. The very flat devices currently are
used in the lithium-ion battery system of a German compact car.
Surfaces made of this thermoplastic are very low-emission, as
demonstrated by thermal desorption analyses conducted by LANXESS
in accordance with VDA 278 (German Association of the Automotive
Industry). “It is also suitable for many motor vehicle applications
requiring very low volatile and condensable emissions, such as
components for the automotive interior,” Marbach said.
The blend is highly resistant to typical media used in motor vehicles,
such as fuels, oils, cleansers and car care products, as proven in
extensive media storage tests conducted by LANXESS for HELLA
in accordance with the supply specification LV 124, used by many
automotive manufacturers. It also displays good resistance to an
electrolyte widely used in lithium-ion batteries. The corresponding test
was additionally conducted under load in compliance with DIN EN
22088-3.LANXESS
Makes New Material For EV Battery
APA Bureau
APA Bureau
Tata Motors, MAHLE
To Develop Secondary Loop
Mobile AC System