It is essential to shield electronic components in cars from electromagnetic interference. And the need is urgent in all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Interference can easily occur when housings and covers are made of plastic. By their very nature, the aluminum parts used to this point are electrically conductive, but this conductivity has to be imparted to plastics. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) has several ways of doing this.
One of them is EMI coating, which is the application of a conductive coating to the surface of the plastic. FST and BASF have signed an agreement to cooperate on this technology, and the partners are already at work. “We are teaming up to solve the remaining technical obstacles to the use of plastics in electric vehicles such as crash and acoustic behavior. The technical term is noise, vibration and harshness, or NVH. We also plan to help one another attract customers,” said Volker Schroiff, Director, Technology Management.
After the contract was signed in June, key figures from both sides met on the roof of the new BASF Creation Center in Ludwigshafen to share their views. The Freudenberg contingent, including Dr. Matthias Sckuhr, Volker Schroiff, Ralf Schmid, Matthias Hauer and Andrea Bloch (of the Freudenberg & Co. legal department), headed over to the other side of the Rhine. The BASF delegation was led by Dr. Guiscard Glück, Vice President, R&D Engineering Plastics Europe.
