Global Collaboration at DuPont Asian Automotive Centers

With the fast-growing automotive market in Asia, DuPont has expanded its number of Asian automotive centers and also opened innovation centers dedicated to collaborative innovation. Since the Japan location opened in 2005, two new Asian innovation centers in India, and Korea have been established.

At each center, automakers and suppliers can connect with the DuPont global network of over 150 research laboratories and application development centers, and 9,500 scientists and engineers, to work on solutions to meet critical challenges and increase the speed to market of those solutions.

Each innovation center has an innovation space and a collaboration space. The innovation space showcases DuPont’s latest automotive offerings and applications and hosts educational seminars. Here, automakers and suppliers can visualize the possibilities for how DuPont can help them solve their specific challenges.

In the collaboration space, partners connect with DuPont scientists around the world via video conferencing. This space facilitates knowledge exchange to nurture and deliver innovative solutions. This real-time ability to tap into DuPont expertise has created a new pipeline for growth.

Successful Application Development Collaborations

Many important applications have been developed from collaborations at Asian automotive centers, including:

• Bio-sourced material from castor bean oil used to make a radiator end tank for Denso. 
• DuPont^™ Sorona^® bio-PTT polymer for Toyota SAI trunk and interior fabrics, for example, headliners, sun visors and trim.
• High-temperature nylon insulator parts for hybrid electric vehicles, for example cable connectors and terminal connectors in the 2008 Toyota Prius.
• Four DuPont high-performance polymers and elastomers in the air intake system for a low-compression diesel turbo engine: DuPont^™ Vamac^® elastomer for high temperature resistance, plus DuPont^™ Zytel^® and Zytel^® HTN plastics for heat resistance and strength to withstand vibration welding.
• Zytel^® HTN and Zytel^® GRZ plastics for a lightweight, affordable thermostat housing that withstands aggressive coolants, extreme thermal cycling, and humidity under the hood
• DuPont^™ Kevlar^® fiber for automotive belts

Center of Excellence in China

The DuPont Automotive Center in Shanghai, China provides integrated design and application development services at one site. Located at the DuPont China Research & Development Center, the center has a design space and laboratories serving the industry on material development, prototyping, and auto parts performance and reliability testing.

To facilitate part and mold design optimization, the center is equipped with state-of-the-art software that provides 3-D surface CAD (computer-aided design), mold-flow, warpage, structural, impact and NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) analysis. Highly equipped processing laboratories support molding trial and process evaluation to help reduce cycle time. Using all of these services, DuPont and its partners can deliver solutions that address specific market needs.

At the Asian automotive centers and innovation centers, DuPont is committed to bring scientific solutions to our global customers to meet local needs. These centers provide the environment and technology to stimulate science collaboration and facilitate knowledge exchange that result in solving the Asia automotive industry’s toughest challenges.