SGL Carbon took second place in the Products and Applications category at the AVK Innovation Awards 2023, which were presented at the JEC DACH Forum in Salzburg, Austria. With their solution "Electric car battery housing components based on innovative continuous fiber-reinforced phenolic resin composites", the experts for fiber composites were able to prevail against many great new technologies.
Dr. Maximilian Schäfer, Head of Technology in the Business Unit Composite Solutions, and his team have brought a first component into series production that utilizes phenolic resins in an innovative process chain and combines them with continuous glass fibers.
"This new approach reduces the wall thickness of the housing parts by up to 25% compared to our proven solutions with an epoxy resin matrix - with better performance. The component weight is reduced significantly," says Dr. Christoph Ebel, Head of Product Management in the Business Unit Composite Solutions. "For electric cars in particular, every gram counts when it comes to optimizing range. Thanks to improved process control, we also save material in production and thus conserve valuable resources."
Particularly lightweight, crash- and fire-resistant composites are the materials of choice for battery housings in electric vehicles. They can safely contain even "thermal runaways" - uncontrolled overheating of the battery. Currently, these components are often made of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin.
