Gold for Battery Coolant Hoses

It is not only our customers who value our material expertise. Our materials and products regularly also impress the juries of prestigious competitions. One example is our lightweight radiator hoses for thermal management in electric vehicles, which have now been honored with the Materialica Gold Award 2021.

Lightweight, compact, wear-resistant, and cost-optimized

Radiator hoses play an important role in modern electric vehicles. They need to ensure maximum range and efficiency in complex heat management systems. This requires new material concepts that overcome the drawbacks of rubber tubing, such as their high weight and costs.

This is precisely where our radiator hoses made from thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) excel: They are lightweight, compact, wear-resistant and cost-optimized. The fact that a recycled material can also be used means that it contributes to the achievement of our sustainability goals. This impressed the jury and secured us first place in the “Material” category.

Our hoses consist of three layers: a TPE inner layer, a textile thermoplastic reinforcement made of yarn and a TPE outer layer. Nonetheless, they can be produced cost-effectively in a continuous extrusion process.

Production roll-out in fully electric vehicles will take place at two major automobile manufacturers next year.

Careful use of resources

The Materialica Design + Technology Award is the world’s leading competition at the interface between materials, design, and technology. It is awarded annually as part of eMove360° Europe in Munich, the international trade fair for mobility 4.0. Robert Metzger, organizer of the MunichExpo praised the prize-winner: “The award-winning submissions address not only solutions for sustainable mobility, but also and more generally the careful use of resources.”