Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG (Kautex), a Textron Inc. company, announced it has received the first order from an automotive OEM for a thermoplastic composite underbody battery protection skid plate. The skid plate is part of the company’s new Pentatonic battery system product line supporting battery electric vehicle production.
Pentatonic is a lightweight, customizable solution produced from thermoplastic or composite metal hybrid. The new skid plate design will be produced for on-and-off-road applications. It is designed to meet industry-leading impact requirements and features over a 50% weight reduction versus its steel counterpart. Pentatonic’s material composition and production processes also offer inherent corrosion resistance, design flexibility, improved serviceability and overall higher value than other alternatives.
“Kautex has a history of innovation and firsts throughout its 88-year history,” said Jörg Rautenstrauch, president & CEO, Kautex Textron. “We are delighted our Pentatonic technology has been chosen to support this innovative customer, and we look forward to offering a complete thermoplastic composite battery structure in future design and development work.”
“Research, development and testing has proven our system offers improved performance versus steel and aluminum systems while reducing weight and CO2 emissions and simplifying the production process,” said Felix Haas, director, Pentatonic Product Development. “Our customer understands the system-level benefits we offer and is leading the industry in the transition to composite-based structures to meet their needs.”
The Pentatonic system recently won the Enabler Technology Award from the Internationale Gesellschaft für Kunststofftechnik, SPE Central Europe for its Pentatonic battery system and a Langxuan Innovation Award in China. Additionally, last fall, the system underwent rigorous testing in accordance with internationally recognized standards including the Chinese GB 38031 standard and the ECR R100 from the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). The system successfully met the requirements for numerous tests including mechanical shock, crush, drop, vibration and bottom impact testing.
