In the ongoing quest to do more with less, some automotive applications prove more challenging than others. These applications require very narrow tolerances for dimensional stability to ensure safe operation of the part over its lifetime. Since plastics have less dimensional stability than metals – particularly over a broad temperature range and with varying humidity levels – many metal to plastic conversions need to contend with additional complexity.

The dimensional stability of plastics is determined in part by the material characteristics, and in part by the production process and tooling. Successful metal to plastic conversions take excellent intrinsic material characteristics like low moisture uptake, and low coefficient of thermal expansion, as well as minimal variation of the material within a batch, and from batch to batch.

Brake booster valve bodies are one application where narrow tolerances are essential for safety. As the heart of the braking system, the brake booster valve body needs to operate reliably and faultlessly for the lifetime of the vehicle. Our portfolio of materials provides proven capabilities on part tolerances and process consistency due to our extremely tight materials specifications, in terms of glass fiber content and molecular weight.

Arnite A is the ideal solution for this application. This 35% glass-fiber reinforced polyethylene terephthalate resin has been used for more than 20 years in more than 300 million vehicles worldwide – without a single reported fault. This optimized material achieves best-in-class dimensional tolerances, and we back all of our material sales with full support through processing, and part and tool design.

Ask us how we can help design your next part with extremely narrow tolerances.