Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 20, 2014 02:00 AM

DuPont's Lindner: Auto fuel targets creating opportunity

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    DuPont Co.
    Patrick Lindner, president of the performance polymers division of DuPont Co.

    As the new president of DuPont Co.'s Performance Polymers division, Patrick Lindner says he sees applications development as a big part of the company's future.

    Lindner has been with DuPont since 1996, first working as a chemist in the company's fluoropolymers business and later holding leadership positions in a variety of areas including marketing, corporate plans and DuPont's electronics business.

    Plastics News sat down with Lindner to discuss his division's work in automotive plastics.

    Q: Tell us about DuPont's work in the automotive industry.

    Linder: The automotive industry is a good percentage of our business. That business is so dynamic right now. It went through obviously the downturn in 2008, but it's come back very strong all around the world, and the technology is changing very rapidly. The targets around fuel efficiency are really creating new opportunities for new materials. The U.S. has a target in 2025 of getting to 54.5 miles per gallon; the average in 2013 was about 24 miles per gallon. So you're talking about a huge change over the course of 10 to 12 years to get to those standards. And for us, that means new materials, engines are getting smaller, they're getting hotter, more efficient. … So we're seeing a lot of adoption of our products in those areas.

    Q: Lightweighting is really big right now, but it's more than simple material substitution. How is DuPont pushing design for those lightweighting efforts?

    Linder: Lightweighting is very important. I've been hearing that from each and every one of our partners, OEMs as well as Tier 1 suppliers in automotive, that managing this is going to be a key way to get fuel efficiency down. So one of the key things for us is that we take a concept from our customer or the OEMs … they'll come to us just with a concept, and then we have the ability to start to model that, and I think this is a real strength of what we do.

    We're developing an oil pan application for large trucks that basically takes 50 percent of the weight out of that oil pan. And as you might imagine, one of the critical things to do that [is to] obviously hold the oil, but also so that in a way, since this sits at a place that's exposed to the elements, and very different temperatures, make sure that it has the impact resistance of what a steel-based pan would. Because obviously you don't want to compromise quality in taking the weight out. And so that's an application — we have several others — where we've been able to do that. And those applications, provided they're successful, will continue hopefully well into the future; sometimes these applications go for decades or even longer.

    DuPont Co.

    An oil pan using DuPont's Zytel resin, developed for the commercial truck industry.

    Q: And you're able to integrate some other things into an oil pan, like the seals, and different tubing.

    Linder: It's huge, we have a broad base of polymers and high temperature products that are great for the impact resistance and other properties associated with the pan itself. The seal has to be really good, so the surface of the pan has to be great, which is a challenge in plastics, really a big challenge. So we do that through our design, make sure that we've got the right molding capability. Then you have to seal it. And we also have elastomers, which are softer, and they form great gaskets, and they're also really chemical resistant. So that's the other thing, I think, as we go through applications development, it's really exciting for us to say to the customer, “OK, we can do the pan, but we can also do the gaskets, and seal those effectively.”

    Lightweighting is a big driver for fuel efficiency, but our customers always come to us and say, we want total cost of operation or total system cost reduced, because cost is a big important thing as they go forward. And for us, we find that lightweighting and total system cost reduction match up very nicely. Because you can take a product which has a system that has multiple components and maybe convert them into just one, reduce the weight and reduce the total cost for the OEM, for the customer.

    Q: Can you give us an overview of where you're at as far as integrating plastics into more under-the-hood functions?

    Linder: A good portion of our business is certainly under the hood, and in the powertrain, and engines. I think the biggest trend that's happening in the engines today is — and this is all being driven by the same trend around fuel efficiency — a lot of the engines are now being turbocharged, which allows them to downsize them and become more important. And that requires different technology, because when you do that you have cool air coming in and then hot air coming out. We have materials that can serve in both, but mainly we're targeting that hot air that comes out the exhaust — very corrosive and that sort of thing. So as one example of an application, we've taken a multi-component steel system and replaced it with our high-temperature products, and then we use our elastomer, because these now have to fit around corners. Steel as you can imagine, bending it around corners is not easy, and you have to pre-fabricate it, and hope it fits. We have the ability now with our elastomers, to now take a bendable product, take a hose which is very chemically resistant, withstands hot temperatures, and bend it around a corner.

    So now what they've been able to do, OEMs and Tier 1s supplying this, they're able to take a fairly rigid, heavy product and come up with one that has a lower total systems cost and is lighter-weight, and easier to install and all of that. So that's a good example.

    Q: What are you hearing from people regarding the timing pressure around the fuel efficiency standards?

    Linder: One of the things I've been hearing about is timing, and I think it's important, is that there's going to be, in the U.S., a mid-term check in 2016. It'll start in 2016 and go into 2017, and that's going to be a really important effort by the global producers who are around the world and sell into the United States market in particular, but obviously also the big manufacturers in the U.S. that have been here and are based here. And that check will look at, is 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 the right target? If not, what might it be? And there's questions around will it stay at that target and move out in terms of timing? Or will it stay at the 2025 timeline but perhaps reduce the target a little bit? Or keep it right where it is and let innovation drive the way. And so I think that's going to be a very interesting debate, and it's going to be strongly influenced by what the state-of-the-art technology is.

    We're talking a lot about combustion engines here, but there's a whole other area of hybrid and electric. And also where these OEMs are asking for us, the big brand owners around the world are asking us to bring new materials, because it's a completely different set of materials required. So that's also going to work into the equation, but it's pretty clear, maybe with the exception of Japan, that there's a lot of focus on engine design and lightweighting and getting the engines themselves to be more effcient and building off of that base. How far they can take that? Depends on how the entire industry works together to solve those issues. For us, that's right in our sweet spot.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    PET Recycling Coalition releases first grants
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Asahi Kasei settles Michigan PFAS lawsuit, agrees to clean up pollution
    2
    Numbers That Matter Live January 2023: Expect short-term pain, strong rebound in 2024
    3
    Berry, Coca-Cola launch tethered caps in EU markets
    4
    Berry sees growing health care demand in India; new plant to open soon
    5
    Top-dollar deals, repeat buyers highlight 2022 M&A
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified