By: ICN Bureau
Last updated : January 12, 2026 4:31 pm
Glass fiber-reinforced, low-halogen Ultramid grade meets requirements up to well over 100,000 hours
The rise of eMobility creates urgent demand for high-performance plastics, as constant battery charging elevates under-hood temperatures and chemical exposure, necessitating component lifespans of 45,000-55,000 hours for parts like pumps and valves, compared to just 5,000 hours for combustion engines.
BASF is expanding its material durability testing beyond traditional air-heat environments to include hydrolysis storage, specifically aging within water-glycol mixtures. By applying the Arrhenius equation to model the relationship between temperature and reaction rates, the company can accurately predict material service life under standard operating conditions.
As part of a series of tests launched in August 2020, a polyamide from BASF's latest generation of materials was examined. The Ultramid is characterized by optimized hydrolysis resistance, laser markability, glass fiber reinforcement and low halogen content and thus meets all the requirements of the automotive market, even in the future.
The results show: The properties of the tested polyamide can be extrapolated to more than 100,000 hours after five years of testing and provide the automotive industry in the car and truck sector with the necessary security.