New Heat and Oil Resistant Thermoplastic Vulcanizate (TPV) for Demanding Underhood Applications

Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) afford many advantages in terms of part design, processing methods, and part cost. Due to temperature and oil resistance limitations, current generation TPVs (including those based on ethylene-propylene rubber [EPDM] and polypropylene [PP]) and copolyester have had only limited applicability in many powertrain sealing, hot air duct, and boot applications. This paper will introduce a new class of heat and oil resistant TPVs. A polyacrylate (ACM)/polyamide based TPV representative of this class will be compared to current generation TPVs and typical thermoset rubber. When tested out to 1500 hrs at 150°C, the ACM//polyamide TPV will be shown to exhibit less than 50% loss of tensile strength and ultimate elongation.