TI Automotive Ltd. is spending nearly $6 million to launch production of two new blow molded fuel-tank systems designed to capture emissions that otherwise could leak into the atmosphere.
The company has spent years developing and testing the systems - one called Ship in a Bottle, the other the Complete Vapor Recovery - and now will spend 6.5 million euros ($5.8 million) to launch a blow molding line for the new units in Rastatt, Germany.
``The new system will enable us to shorten the product-development process,'' Manouchehr Kambakhsh, vice president for global advanced engineering, said in a May 16 news release.
The line is slated to go into operation next month. Executives were not available to discuss details.
The fuel-system provider will spend another 500,000 euros ($456,000) for a technology center in Rastatt that will do further research and development.
Both the Ship in a Bottle - or SIB system - and the CVR are designed to reduce emissions from existing multilayer plastic fuel tanks and meet increasingly tougher control demands from the state of California.
The SIB moves some components inside the tank to capture vapors that otherwise could leak out at connection sites. The CVR, meanwhile, has a molded cap that encapsulates the tank and exterior components to catch escaping emissions and funnel them back into the fuel system.
TI Automotive of Warren, Mich., was spun off from London-based Smiths Group plc last year. It plans to upgrade technology and research centers in North America as well, but details on those plans were not available.