Powder coatings are essential to the future evolution of Electric Vehicles (EVs), protecting batteries and associated components from overheating and insulating them against other threats that can reduce performance and increase risk.
And powder coatings are doing more than just helping to prevent thermal runaways and the risk of battery failure in modern EVs. They are also supporting EV Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and tiers in creating a more sustainable manufacturing process, and compliance with stringent international environmental regulations and directives.
These are two of the many themes explored in a new White Paper from AkzoNobel Powder Coatings entitled: ‘The critical importance of powder coatings in driving an electric future’.
The White Paper shows how powder coatings help protect a vehicle’s cooling systems by electrically insulating and protecting its components, keeping the battery within its optimal temperature range.
It also reveals how powder coatings support the longer-term performance of the battery by protecting it against corrosion and other threats, and how they protect the wider electric ecosystem of the vehicle – its cooling plates and tubes, stator hairpins, bus bars, battery cell and housing – many of which have long-term heat resistance requirements.
Specifically, the White Paper addresses the evolution of Interpon and Resicoat powder coatings from AkzoNobel over the last 50 years and the benefits they can bring to current and future OEM designs. It details the environmental benefits of products that are free of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), create no hazardous waste, and enable powder that has been oversprayed to be re-claimed and re-used.
Gustavo Carvalho, Automotive key account and Segment Director at AkzoNobel Powder Coatings, the author of the White Paper, says the rise of the modern electric vehicle appears unstoppable: “Global CO2 emission targets and changing consumer behaviours are driving change,” he says.
“Many manufacturers are now switching to powder coatings because of the technical performance and environmental credentials that a powder coating delivers. They are also switching because in becoming more sustainable, they are also gaining in performance.”
To read the White Paper, click here.
