BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, has cited recent developments in the automotive and pipe insulation industries in which it had a role in making industrial products safer, stronger and greener. Mercedes has used an improved version of a BASF resin to make fuel filler flaps while in a Korea liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal the company’s specialised foam used to insulate pipe has provided energy-efficient thermal insulation, easy handling and flame retardancy.

Discussing the Mercedes application, BASF pointed out that until recently the current T-model in the E-Class from Mercedes had an especially large fuel filler flap, since it was intended to accommodate variable fueling options. This flap has now been converted to the new Ultramid TOP 4000 from BASF, a mineral-filled semi-aromatic polyamide (PA 6/6T).

The conductive engineering resin is an improved version of the Ultramid TOP 3000 introduced in 2007 and offers primarily greater stiffness and dimensional stability. Just like its predecessor, the new material is also suitable for online painting.

'This means plastic components made from Ultramid TOP 4000 can, without additional effort or costs, withstand the various baths and painting operations to which the rest of the body is subjected,' BASF explained.

'This material thus represents one more step towards the lightweight plastic automobile body thus enabling further reduction of fuel consumption and emissions,' it added.

Ultramid is BASF’s brand name for partially crystalline thermoplastic polyamides. The product range encompasses PA 6 brands (Ultramid B), PA 66 brands (Ultramid A) and PA 6/6T brands (Ultramid T) as well as brands based on special copolyamides, for instance, PA 66/6. Owing to their outstanding properties, Ultramid has become indispensable for special applications in the automotive sector as well as in electrical engineering and machine construction.

Ultramid offers an attractive combination of properties: high strength and stiffness; excellent toughness; good resilience properties; outstanding chemical resistance; dimensional stability; low tendency to creep; outstanding sliding friction properties; easy processing.

'In the course of development, the BASF Verbund once again demonstrated its capabilities, as the experts at BASF Coatings GmbH in Münster contributed greatly to optimising the new resins on the basis of their know-how in the fields of paint and coating,' BASF said. The fuel filler flap for the Daimler station wagon is manufactured at Kunststoff Schwanden AG in Schwanden (CH).

Verbund is a German word meaning 'linked' or integrated. At BASF it stands for an integrated approach to manufacturing, research and overall management philosophy combined with the maximum integration of infrastructure, processes, energy and waste management.

BASF’s speciality foam Basotect can now be used to insulate pipes in LNG tank terminals.

In the other development, BASF announced that its speciality foam Basotect, made from melamine resin, a thermoset polymer, was now for the first time being used to insulate pipes in a LNG tank terminal in Gwangyang, Korea. The pipe cover with Basotect provides energy-efficient thermal insulation, easy handling and flame retardancy. LNG is natural gas which is temporarily liquefied at very low temperatures in order to transport or store it more easily. As the temperature of LNG must be kept below -162°C, efficient insulation for the pipes is necessary.

According to SKI Insulation, the system supplier of the removable insulation cover, the pipe cover made from Basotect is more energy-efficient as it is 20 per cent thinner and provides up to 50 per cent better thermal insulation than conventional foam insulation. 'Basotect shows a high degree of stability at low temperatures. In laboratory tests even at temperatures of around 200°C, the material retains its properties. The high degree of elasticity and the thermal insulation capacity of the foam remain unaffected, in contrast to conventional foam insulation, which becomes brittle when exposed to such extreme cold,' said Dr Peter Wolf, head of global business management, Basotect, BASF.

Basotect can be installed and handled in an easy and cost-effective way. SKI Insulation discovered that the system material with the lightweight and flexible BASF foam can be easily removed for regular inspection of pipe integrity and later reused, unlike rigid conventional foams that are hard to replace. This translates into reduced maintenance costs. Additionally, Basotect is a highly flame-retardant material, another key consideration for SKI Insulation as natural gas burns easily.

An open-cell foam, Basotect has a unique range of properties. The base material makes it flame-retardant; it can be used at up to 240° Celsius while retaining its properties over a wide temperature range. Because of its open-cell foam structure, it is light (9 g/l), sound-absorbing, flexible even at low temperatures and thermally insulating. Basotect can be found in numerous construction projects in Asia, including the National Aquatics Centre (China), Hefei Grand Theater (China) and in stations of Seoul’s Metro Line 9 (Korea).