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Arkema wins Pierre Potier prize for Rilsan HT

10 Sep '13

3 min read

Arkema won the Pierre Potier prize with Rilsan HT ultra high temperature biosourced polymer. The result of over 5 years of research, Rilsan HT is the first thermoplastic from the polyphthalamide (PPA) family available on the market to combine high temperature resistance with flexibility. These characteristics make it aptly suited to replace metal and rubber in under-the-hood tubing applications.

Six times lighter than steel and three times lighter than aluminium, it therefore helps reduce the weight of vehicles, their fuel consumption and their CO2 emissions. Additionally, this high performance polymer has a renewable carbon content of up to 70%. The Pierre Potier prize panel of judges were won over by this product’s many beneficial features, awarding it the top prize.

The requirements of the latest standards on vehicle emissions (including CO2) have prompted carmakers to develop smaller engines, hence generating very high temperatures, as well as new, lighter fluid transfer systems designed to improve engine yields. Traditional solutions based on metal or metal-rubber assemblies can withstand very high temperatures, but they have the disadvantage of being heavy, sometimes costly and difficult to process.

Meanwhile, polyamides, lighter than metal, and until now available on the market for flexible tubing manufacture, have a narrow scope of under-the-hood applications as they cannot withstand engine temperatures in excess of 150°C.

Eager to address this shortcoming, Arkema’s research has developed Rilsan HT, a brand new polymer that combines the high temperature stability of metal and rubber with the flexibility and light weight of polyamides. This material is a true ground-breaking innovation for carmakers.

Beyond the limits of the other PPA resins

For decades Arkema has been developing its expertise in polyamide 11, a polymer from a renewable source valued by carmakers for its unique light weight, flexibility, as well as chemical and thermal (up to 150°C) stability properties.

Building on this know-how, Arkema undertook to develop a polyphthalamide (PPA) capable of withstanding both high temperatures and aggressive fluids, while also being flexible (the other PPAs on the market feature a significantly higher intrinsic rigidity) and extrudable. All three characteristics combined for the first time in a PPA-based material. As a result, Rilsan HT offers hitherto inconceivable metal replacement possibilities.

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