SHANGHAI, CHINA (19 JANUARY, 2023) – Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG (Kautex), a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced it received a Lingxuan Innovation Award for its Pentatonic battery system. The award was presented at their annual Award Ceremony on 22, December in Wuhan, China. The event was attended by more than 400 hundred automotive companies from across China.
· Probability of mass production in terms of development maturity, segment opportunity, preparedness for start of production (SOP)
The Pentatonic battery system, Kautex’s latest innovation, is constructed from lightweight thermoplastic composite in a one-step molding process. The enclosure offers numerous advantages to OEMs, including a reduced carbon footprint (an average of 55% compared to aluminum housings), a one-shot production process allowing direct feature integration and inherent protection from corrosion and leakage versus its metal counterparts.
“We are honored to be recognized by Lingxuan at their annual event,” said Xiaoning Ni, vice president, Sales, Customer Engineering and Program Management at Kautex’s regional headquarters in Shanghai, China. “This award recognizes the transformation that Kautex is undergoing to offer its customers innovative, useful solutions in the era of electrification. It also celebrates the dedication and commitment of our employees who have made this moment possible.”
Part of the award criteria is the potential to mass-produce the product and the company’s readiness for production. To ensure the company was prepared to design and produce battery systems for customers world-wide, Kautex purchased and installed its first 5500-ton compression molding machine at its manufacturing plant in Pinghu. The team is finalizing the official acceptance of the equipment in preparation of customer visits and trials. Additionally, the Pentatonic battery system recently underwent rigorous testing in accordance with internationally recognized standards including the Chinese GM38031 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.
“The Kautex team has taken a 360-degree approach to the design, development and preparation of Pentatonic,” said Bear Yuan, senior sales manager in China. “We developed robust design simulations, undergone rigorous third-party testing, purchased a compression molder for trials and customer testing, and installed a Kautex-designed battery system in a demonstrator vehicle in Europe. All of these investments were taken to prove the value and technical feasibility of thermoplastics as a reliable, innovative option to the existing enclosure solutions.”