BASF will supply a PA6 resin to US-based Ford Motor Company for select air intake manifold (AIM) programmes that includes the addition of post consumer recycled resin to the traditionally prime base polyamide. This customised grade exclusive to North America will be adopted on three of Ford’s current production engines.

“Whenever technically possible, we are introducing recycled materials into our current production components,” said Jeff Kosko, Engineering Supervisor for Intake Systems, Ford. The use of this is part of an overall plan to at Ford to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. Ford claims it has reduced the amount of automotive-related plastics to landfills by nearly 30 million pounds and saved approximately $4.5 million by reusing recycled materials.

The polyamide resin manifolds appear in the 2.5-liter I-4 engine for the Ford Fusion and Ford Escape; the 5.0-litre V-8 engine used in vehicle models including F Series trucks and Mustang; and the 6.2-litre V-8 engine for the F- Series. Tier 1 Suppliers Montaplast (2.5L), and MAHLE North America (6.2L and 5.0L), are producing the manifolds.

“By converting metal components to plastic, Montaplast has been involved in reducing vehicle weight and improving environmental impact since the very beginning, said Michael Alexander, Montaplast’s Programme Manager for the project. “This cooperative effort between Ford, BASF and MAHLE, is yet another example of innovation, this time in the area of sustainability.

Ford, its Tier 1 suppliers, and BASF invested significant engineering resources and processing know-how to ensure that the designs for the manifolds using recycled polyamide material would be robust enough to withstand the harsh heat and chemical environments found underhood. This is in addition to the traditional plastics advantages of weight reduction of as much as 40 percent and enhanced fuel economy and engine performance compared with cast aluminum air intake manifolds.

Montaplast is a global plastic injection molding company leading in the conversion of highly engineered automotive components and systems from metal to plastic. Privately-held Montaplast, with its HQ in Morsbach, Germany has operations in Europe, North America, China and Japan.