Zeon: Zetpol HNBR ideal material to tackle EV challenges

PITTSBURGH—It's not just that Zeon Chemicals L.P. is ready to meet the automotive market where it is today. The company is ready to meet the market where it will be tomorrow.

And tomorrow, the market will be significantly more electric.

Zeon's market research indicates that by 2030, between 20 and 25 percent of the vehicle parc will be battery electric vehicles.

"That is not a trivial number," Brian Cail, vice president of sales and marketing for Zeon Chemicals, told Rubber News during the International Elastomer Conference. "We have spent a lot of effort to—I would have originally said to get ready—but it's really to be ready."

You can bet that Zeon is.

One of the major reasons for that is its portfolio of HNBR products to market under the Zetpol brand. These materials are uniquely suited to tackle the challenges that BEVs throw at them. And, as such, HNBR usage is rising in popularity.

But don't just take Cail's word for it. Take a look at the vehicles themselves.

Zeon has found, through vehicle tear-downs, that electric vehicles built in the U.S. and abroad are showing high contents of HNBR componentry—mainly seals—in the electric drivetrain and throughout battery cooling systems.

"(We) have really been focused on fluid testing with some of the fluids that we are finding in BEVs," Cail said. "While some of the first-generation, pure-electric vehicles have used traditional lubricants, we are seeing interest by OEMs and interest by fluid makers (to use)—I call them—BEV-intentional fluids, that is a fluid that is designed and optimized for the BEVs. And we have been doing a lot of compatibility testing with our materials in those fluids."

Zetpol HNBR, he said, is up to the challenge, thanks to their mechanical toughness, and heat and chemical resistance.

"There is a direction toward dielectric fluids for the future for better cooling efficiency. Those dielectric fluids are quite aggressive to a number of elastomers and that is really where HNBR shines," Cail said. "Typical glycol, the historic cooling method, there is a lot of cost-effective options there, but really HNBR on the cooling side becomes more applicable as the industry moves toward dielectric fluids in particular."

Zeon is positioned to help bring the much-needed HNBR to the automotive industry, thanks in no small part to the plant expansion in Pasadena, Texas.

With the expansion Zeon's domestic capacity of HNBR will increase by 50 percent, while its global capacity will grow by 25 percent.

The expansion project should be online sometime in 2025.

Zeon also manufactures Zetpol in Japan.

Having that U.S.-based supply of HNBR is important though, Cail said, but so is global availability.

"Global availability, the capacity expansion certainly assists in that regard," Cail said. "Duplicity of supply and not being dependent on a single site—there is certainly an advantage there, too."