2007-11-07 Manufacturing News

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Thermoset foam insulation First for Japanese automotive industry

The first melamine resin foam Basotect TG acoustic insulation application produced in Japan for the Japanese automotive industry is for the Lexus flagship LS series engine hood covers.

Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota, Japan, is using BASF’s melamine resin foam Basotect* TG for its Lexus flagship LS series engine hood covers. This is the first Basotect TG application produced in Japan for the Japanese automotive industry. The product, the thermoformable version of the well established Basotect, persuades the car maker due to its superiority as a lightweight material, its outstanding sound absorption and high thermal resistance. Those qualities have been spotlighted in order to reduce gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions as well as to maximize comfort.

Outstanding in sound absorption
Basotect has earned an excellent reputation for acoustic insulation. Thanks to its open-cell, fine structure, the sound absorption values at the medium and high frequency ranges are very good. This acoustic insulation feature fulfills the demands of Toyota's concept of "superior silence.” With a density of approximately 9 kg/m3, Basotect is lighter than glass wool, felt, and other fibrous materials usually employed as engine hood covers. It therefore helps to reduce vehicle body weight.

For automakers, improving safety performance in cases of car collisions is a crucial issue. Due to their higher flexibility, covers made of Basotect TG allow the production of engine hoods that offer optimized protection to pedestrians. In this way, car makers can better meet the more stringent requirements to pedestrian protection.

Basotect* TG in the engine hood cover of Toyota's Lexus LS. Click Here for High resolution image. photo: Toyota / BASF

Toyota equips its Lexus LS series with Basotect
Toyota is using BASF’s melamine thermoset resin foam Basotect TG for its Lexus LS series engine hood cover. This is the first Basotect TG application for the Japanese automotive industry. View photo at right.

First thermoset foam suitable for thermoforming
Basotect TG lends itself for acoustic insulation in an automotive wherever high continuous working temperatures prevail, such as in covers for engine hoods, partition walls between the engine and the passenger compartments, transmission tunnels as well as in engine proximity shells. “No products with a comparable performance profile exist for the engine area,” explains Bernhard Vath from Global Business Management Basotect. Basotect TG is the first thermoset foam that can be shaped under heat. The impregnating step that used to be indispensable for thermoforming this material is now gone, simplifying its processing and making it more cost-efficient.

* Trademarks of BASF.

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Official opening announcement of the SEAT Design Center in Martorell, the only fully integrated complex of its kind for the automotive industry in Spain.

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