From flush exterior door handles to keyless functions, customized polybutadiene potting compounds can play a big part in innovative functionalities and the brand-specific design of a vehicle access systems. Tailor-made materials from WEVO-CHEMIE GmbH provide long-term protection for the antennas and sensors essential for these systems, guarantee dependable transmission of radio waves, and enable an efficient production process. To this end, the company matches properties such as the dielectric properties, rheology, or pot life to the specific requirements, even for small quantities. In addition, the materials can be used for LTE antennas, lidar, radar, and TPMS sensors as well as NFC chips.

Flush exterior door handles that, for example, deploy automatically when the driver walks up to the car are now a design trait in many of today’s vehicles. What’s more, technical options such as keyless functions are also increasingly being implemented. Specially optimized, polybutadiene-based potting compounds from Wevo offer reliable protection for the sensors and antennas necessary for these functions. Among other things, the materials have been modified to provide low and stable dielectric properties, which ensure optimal transmissibility for radio waves across wide operating-temperature and frequency ranges. This contributes to lasting, interference-free communication between the sensors and antennas built into the door handle or B-pillar and the car key or owner's smartphone.

Efficient Production Process

To realize brand-specific designs, developers have, among other things, adjusted the rheology of the potting compounds. Component-specific adaptation prevents the materials from flowing through small production process related cavities into areas they should not reach — and causing shadows in the illuminated door handle recesses, for instance. This makes it possible to dispense with barrier materials that would otherwise be required, ultimately leading to cost savings and a more efficient production process.

Wevo ensures adaption to downstream process steps by optimizing flow behavior and the curing time of the polybutadienes. Individual adjustment of the pot life also enables the products to be integrated into existing and planned production processes.

Technology for Flush Door Handles

With flush exterior door handles in particular, the potting pockets are often narrower than with classic designs, due to the specific component geometries. With special formulation, Wevo’s polybutadienes ensure that electrical and electronic components are reliably protected against ambient conditions during their entire lifetime, even in these use cases.

In addition to vehicle access systems, these customized polybutadiene materials can also be adjusted for other applications in vehicles where safety and reliability are particularly important. These include, for example, the proximity sensors (lidar and radar) for emergency braking assistants, adaptive cruise control or parking assistants, as well as NFC chips and LTE antennas. Wevo has customizable solutions in its portfolio that have already been successfully tested for TPMS sensors for tire-pressure monitoring systems fitted to cars and commercial vehicles (CVs).

For additional information about WEVO-CHEMIE GmbH and its products, visit www.wevo-chemie.de/en.