Automotive components reinforcements

Increasing Performance in Automotive Components

DuPont™ Nomex® and Kevlar® fibers bring together flame and temperature resistance, strength, reinforcement, and other properties that can help improve filters, belts, gaskets, and other automotive components.

Kevlar® and Nomex® brand fibers help improve the safety, performance, and durability of automotive components for a wide variety of vehicles, from passenger cars and light trucks to professional racecars. It is not uncommon for a new vehicle to have several crucial parts that employ products made of Kevlar® aramid fibers and Nomex® flame resistant fibers.

Nomex® for Inherent Flame Resistance and High-Temperature Applications in Automotive Components:

Nomex® sheet structures are used as heat shields, as well as insulation shields for spark plug leads. Other under-the-hood applications where Nomex® helps provide value include flexible, high-temperature hoses, such as those feeding hot air to inlet manifolds, and turbocharger hoses. Inside automobiles, Nomex® helps keep engine bays from overheating, radiator hoses from bursting, and windshield wipers from failing, even in inclement weather conditions.

Kevlar® strength to maintain shape and help increase product life:

Belts
The high modulus and abrasion resistance of Kevlar® yarn help belts retain their original shape and tension over the millions of revolutions they go through over the lifespan of a vehicle.

Brake pads
The frictional forces that brake pads are designed to endure take less of a toll on brake pads made with Kevlar® pulp. The enhanced thermal stability and inherent abrasion resistance of brake pads reinforced with Kevlar® pulp helps allow them to last long and stop the vehicle safely and quietly.

Clutches
Like brakes, clutches undergo the severe frictional stresses for which Kevlar® helps provides an effective solution. Tests have shown that clutch linings that use Kevlar® pulp do not require service or replacement as frequently as standard clutch linings.

Gaskets
Chemical stability and thermal stability help make gaskets reinforced with Kevlar® pulp strong and durable.

Hoses
Using knitted or braided Kevlar® fiber to reinforce radiator, transmission, and turbocharger hoses helps make them strong and light. This is because Kevlar® is not only stronger than other materials typically used in high-pressure hoses; it has excellent thermal stability and chemical resistance as well.

Composites
Kevlar® is replacing fiberglass-reinforced plastic in NASCAR racecar bodies and air dams because it helps to prevent the car body from shattering or leaving hazardous debris on the track after a crash. Kevlar® fiber is used in the HANS Device — the life-saving restraining linkage that supports the driver’s head and neck — that helps absorb impact forces that are strong enough to damage neck vertebrae.

Formula 1 cars use Kevlar® straps to hold onto wheels that break off during crashes, which helps prevent them from bouncing off the track and into the stands.

Tires
Car and truck tires have incorporated Kevlar® into their construction because it helps offer superb puncture, abrasion and tear resistance. Other benefits of tires made with Kevlar® include a quieter ride and a reduction in rotational weight — which can help decrease strain on the engine and typically results in improved fuel efficiency.

Vehicular armor
Kevlar® provides an effective, lightweight armor solution for vehicles that helps protect against ballistic attack, allowing cars and light trucks to retain most of their original handling characteristics, while stopping multiple rounds. Law enforcement agencies, cash security companies, and people who live or work in hostile environments use Kevlar® armor to help increase security in vehicles where weight is critical.