Plastics News - Show Daily - October 20, 2022 - 15

SHOW DAILY
Plastics News, October 20, 2022 * 15
BASF promotes automotive collaborative
data exchange, sustainability solutions
By David Vink
Plastics News Correspondent
The traditional " Atelier " meeting
for customers, partners and the
press held in Mannheim by Ludwigshafen,
Germany-based chemicals
and plastics group BASF SE on
the eve of the annual VDI Plastics in
Automotive Engineering congresses
was a standalone event in 2022,
as PIAE 2022 had been canceled.
But that did not prevent BASF from
proceeding as usual, but somewhat
later, namely in May.
Oliver Ganser was the guest
speaker on Catena-X as " the fi rst
open and collaborative data system,
an operating system or fi tness
program for the automotive industry. "
BASF is one of the founding
members, along Henkel, automotive
OEMs such as BMW and Mercedes
Benz and automotive components
supplier Schaeffl er and other
interested parties such as Siemens
and Fraunhofer Institute. Ganser is
the chairman of Catena-X e.V., head
of the Catena-X Industry Consortium
and also program leader for
BMW's data-driven value chain.
Citing Winston Churchill's statement
that one should " never let a
good crisis go to waste, " Ganser
suggested peer-to-peer networks,
that collaboration networks need
to capture the entire value chain,
that it takes more than one to
network with interoperability and
that sharing data is a matter of
trust and sovereignty.
Catena-X, derived from the Latin
or Italian word for " chain, " is
a data-driven value chain involving
all steps and participants. It
should involve participation of
partners from production, R&D,
fi nance, recycling, logistics, distribution,
digital services and Internet
of Things.
Ganser spoke about a data
ecosystem, with end-to-end data
chains along the entire value chain
and a lighthouse for the automotive
industry, as an open multivendor
system with one-time rather
than multiple acceptance of standards.
Siemens and business software
provider SAP are important
digital system players in Catena-X,
which is based on the GAIA-X European
trusted data sharing digital
platform as its core element.
A survey of German companies
on B2B data sharing showed that
8 percent already share data with
other companies. Twenty-seven
percent planned to do so within a
two-year timescale as data providers
or recipients, while 65 percent
remained uncertain. Fifty percent
of the companies say data sets are
not compatible, 45 percent have
no matching partners, 38 percent
have legal uncertainty, 37 percent
have diffi culties in fi nding common
ground with partners, 36 percent
are not convinced of economic
attractiveness and 35
percent are concerned
about data privacy.
Sustainability
As
a
BASF
board
member since 2017,
Saori Dubourg said in a presentation
that the future needs a better
design and should use sustainability
as a growth driver. This
means a future where less means
more, through smart resource usage
providing " value. "
Chemical companies such as
BASF, for example, will have less
volume growth beyond 2030 as
the growth in monetary value of
chemical production continues to
fall behind GDP growth. Sales will
shift away from physical business
toward value from provision of
services, Dubourg noted.
Increasing use of recyclates
will affect the fossil-based chemicals
market, resulting in companies
like BASF depending on
more mixed feedstock materials,
Dubourg observed. An example
of the feedstock shift was on display
at the BASF Atelier meeting:
a Volvo headliner roof frame produced
by Grupo Antolin using
a combination of a BASF Ultradur
High Speed PBT grade and
thermoformed BASF Elastofl ex
E 3943/134. Both materials are
produced from pyrolysis oil from
BASF SE
Hall 5, Booth
C21-D21
subsidizing companies that don't
use sustainable materials. "
Products and
applications
Aside from the Antolin roof
frame, BASF presented a concept
for
a
lightweight
battery pack
The trend to panoramic roofs
is ever increasing in the
automotive industry. The
actual sunroof opening in the
headliner is supported by a
structural bracket. BASF SE photo
post-consumer and post-industrial
waste and end-of-life tires. BASF
says the roof application is the
fi rst serial car application to make
us of BASF " Chemcycled " chemically
recycled plastics and rubber.
Dubourg spoke about a shift
from shareholder value through
shared value to system value, with
business becoming less important
in relation to society and especially
the environment. Dubourg concluded:
" Business success tomorrow
means creating value for the environment,
society and business. "
Although fi nancial markets are
increasingly paying attention to environmental,
social and governance,
Dubourg said: " We can't continue
cover involving spray transfer
molding of polyurethane-based
composites. Its new glass-fi ber-reinforced
Elastollan R2600 FHF
grade of recycled thermoplastic
polyurethane (R-TPU) was suggested
for overmolding high-voltage
metal busbar applications in
electric drivetrains.
As with other nylon and PBT
suppliers, BASF has also developed
grades in the orange color favored
for components and cables in electric
drive vehicles and established
good color stability at high temperatures.
Also in nylon and PBT,
BASF is looking at alternatives to
halogenated fl ame retardants, each
with associated advantages and
disadvantages.
These include red phosphorous
(only suitable for dark colors),
organic/inorganic phosphor (for
light colors), magnesium hydroxide
(high density, low toughness)
and melamine cyurante (cost-competitive
but only UL94-V2 fl ame retardancy
possible). The company
says the drawbacks of otherwise effi
cient and cost-effective traditional
halogenated FR agents include
high density and corrosiveness of
smoke fumes, low critical tracking
index (CTI) and the need for antinomy
trioxide as a synergist.
Running shoes to
CVJ boots
Sustainable solutions to transform industries
and improve lives
From e-bikes to shoes, and robots to batteries, we enable
you to drive innovation and create the solutions you need
- whatever your challenge.
Join us at Hall 6, Stand C43 to find out more about how
our material science is being applied to the products we
all use everyday.
Hall 6 Stand C43
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Plastics News - Show Daily - October 20, 2022

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