Lanxess Intensifies Blow Molding Support

Materials supplier Lanxess is upgrading its blow molding R&D and customer support activities to accommodate what it sees as major potential for blow molded nylons in cars. Particular targets are charge-air pipes for turbocharged engines and liners for compressed-gas bottles in vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen. These trends motivated the company’s High Performance Materials business unit to set up a global team for developing blow molding materials and applications in powertrains. The team recently installed a large suction blow molding system at its technical center in Dormagen, Germany. The machine is a Kautex KBS20-SB. It has one tool for blowing complex air ducts with varying diameters, oval cross-sections and integrated bellows, up to 630 mm long. A second tool is for molding liners for high-pressure gas tanks. The tool also features a flat cavity area from which test specimens can be taken for calculating material characteristics. “The resulting process-related material data give a very precise and representative material description and help our customers in application development,” says Dr. Klaus Küsters, in charge of blow molding business development.

Another new development tool at Lanxess is blow molding computer process simulation. As part of an international consortium, Lanxess will promote development of simulation software for suction blow molding.