BASF at the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hannover

* Ground-breaking catalyst technology and
AdBlue® by BASF meet future emission standards

* Tailor made plastics for commercial vehicles

* BASF expands its Glysantin® engine coolant range


BASF will be presenting its group-wide integrated truck industry expertise at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover from September 25 to October 2, 2008. The company will be showing its innovative product range for the commercial vehicle industry in Hall 22, Stand A 04. Products include cost-effective catalyst technology, AdBlue® by BASF, engine coolant Glysantin® plus a large number of plastics for powertrain, chassis and interiors.

Intelligent solutions for a clean environment – BASF catalysts
Cleaner than ever and more environmentally friendly – that’s what the commercial vehicles on our roads should be like in the future. In the next few years, a raft of stricter regulations aimed at reducing commercial vehicle emissions will be coming into force worldwide. The EU’s Euro 5 standard to further restrict emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and hydrocarbons (HC) will take effect in 2009. As a leading global manufacturer of catalysts, BASF helps its customers to meet even the most stringent emission standards.

In Hannover, BASF will be presenting SCR catalysts (selective catalytic reduction), which together with AdBlue® by BASF meet the new Euro 5 emission standards and reduce nitrogen oxides as well as diesel particulate filters, which comply with the US 2007 standard. In addition, BASF has developed special diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) and catalyzed soot filters (CSFs) that will also be presented at the IAA Commercial Vehicles.

Diesel oxidation catalysts remove carbon monoxide and non-combusted fuel residues from exhaust gas by oxidizing them to yield carbon dioxide and water. BASF is working to improve their effectiveness. Another important challenge in purifying diesel exhaust is how to remove the soot particles that arise when combustion takes place at lower temperatures. For this, BASF’s special catalytic soot filters reduce these emissions in a cost-effective manner.

BASF will also be presenting its emission control catalysts for enhanced environmentally friendly vehicles (EEVs). This is currently Europe’s most demanding standard for buses and trucks. These particularly eco-friendly vehicles exceed Euro 5 standards, which will be required for all new trucks and buses from 2009. And BASF is already working on new catalyst technologies to meet US standard 2010 and Euro 6 emission limits. More information on these innovative solutions can be found at www.catalysts.basf.com

AdBlue® by BASF makes diesel emissions cleaner
The EU is progressively lowering its emission thresholds for heavy duty diesel trucks, which is why Europe’s truck manufacturers are relying on a future-proof solution: after-treatment systems based on SCR technology (selective catalytic reduction) together with AdBlue®. In view of Euro 4 (in effect since 2006 for all new vehicles) and the imminent Euro 5 standards (effective 2009), AdBlue is more topical than ever. AdBlue® is an ultra-pure, synthetically produced, aqueous 32.5% urea solution, which is injected into the exhaust flow of diesel trucks. In combination with the SCR catalyst, AdBlue® reduces the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust by more than 80 percent. “With AdBlue by BASF, we are offering our customers a complete all-round trouble-free service package,” says Carsten Höhne, product manager for AdBlue®. “We help our customers to manage their individual AdBlue® requirements in a flexible way.” More information on AdBlue® is available at www.adblue.basf.de.
AdBlue® is a registered trademark of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

New high performance engine coolant from the Glysantin family
The new engine coolant “Glysantin Dynamic Protect/G 40” will be premiered at the IAA Commercial Vehicles. BASF is thus adding another high performance product to its Glysantin product family (Glysantin Protect/G 05, Glysantin Alu Protect/G 30, Glysantin Protect Plus/48). “With the growing demands for ever more efficient truck engines, coolant requirements are growing too”, says Glysantin brand manager Mike Freche. “The new combination of organic additives with highly reactive silicon compounds has enabled us to further improve protection against corrosion.” In addition, Glysantin Dynamic Protect/G 40 comprehensively and effectively protects – like all products in the Glysantin range – both the engine and the cooling system. It prevents the coolant from freezing as well as from overheating. The new product has already been approved by Swedish truck manufacturer Scania.

The entire Glysantin range for commercial vehicles has been approved for several vehicle models. Users can find out which BASF engine coolant has been approved and recommended for which commercial vehicle models in the new Glysantin product finder, which we will be presenting at the IAA Commercial Vehicles for the first time. It can also be downloaded in English and in German at www.glysantin.de in the run-up to the exhibition.
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Plastics – tailor-made for commercial vehicles

Roof console of the Opel Zafira
Thermoplastics
In view of the growing worldwide interest in biodiesel, BASF is presenting its engineering plastic Ultraform® S1320 0021 (polyoxymethylene: POM) in Hannover. Storage tests have shown that compared with competitive materials it is significantly more stable than biodiesel. The material is already being used for a variety of components in fuel supply modules.

There is another innovation in the Ultraform product group: a few weeks ago BASF began offering a type of POM that can be extremely well processed using the blow-molding technique. Called Ultraform E3120 BM, the material can be used in the automotive industry for brake fluid, hydraulic oil or AdBlue® containers thanks to its excellent barrier properties against gases, fuels and stability with regard to many chemicals. POM-typical dimensional and mechanical stability additionally open up numerous areas of application for product developers and designers.
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More applications for the commercial vehicle sector

For exteriors and under the hood
A stable and high performance component protects the payload and body of commercial trailers against the enormous force caused by potholes and other uneven road surfaces: the air suspension piston manufactured by HBN Teknik of Denmark from a glass fiber reinforced Ultramid® (PA: polyamide) is used in air spring axle aggregates from BPW.

Radiator grills and lamp covers for the DAF LF and CF (Van Niftrik) plus A-pillar covers (Promens) for the Scania R are manufactured from Luran® S, BASF’s ASA (acrylnitrile styrene acrylester copolymer) and are particularly weather resistant. The styrene specialty polymer meets the truck manufacturer’s requirements for good stability and top-quality appearance – without additional paint. The high UV stability ensures that the material retains its color for many years, does not yellow and in addition is chemical and heat resistant. The components on display are manufactured by Van Niftrik and Promens, two Dutch truck suppliers. The large wind tunnel for some of the DAF engines, on the other hand, is made of the engineering plastic Ultramid B3WGM24 HP, a PA 6 from the BASF portfolio.

The wing mirror housing of the DAF XF105, a roof rail from Decoma, part of the Magna Group, and the cooling water pipe from Polytec Automotive for VW have been manufactured from new Ultradur® (PBT: polybutylene terephthalate) and Ultramid, specially developed for WIT (water injection technology) manufacturing techniques.

A big step in the further development of the plastic chassis is the fender prototype made from new Ultramid TOP 3000, manufactured by Plastal of Norway for Volvo. The new material can be coated online and offers significant advantages for dimensional stability over comparable conventional plastics.

For interiors
The 1.8 meter long internal roof box of the Opel Zafira plus parts of Peugeot’s instrument panel are made of Terblend® N, BASF’s ABS+PA blend. On the one hand, the material allows for matt, leather-like surfaces that do not need coating and on the other it offers excellent acoustic damping properties – particularly important for instrument panels.

The first soft-touch arm rest prototype using the new, cost-effective Dolphin technique for automotive interior components is ready. The core of these two layered components consists of Ultradur S 4090 High Speed, a flow-improved and low-warp PBT. Dolphin is a collaboration between BASF, P-Group, machine manufacturer Engel and toolmaker Georg Kaufmann. Scania has already completed the first prototypes. More information is available at www.plasticsportal.eu

Radiator screens with polyurethane
One of the eye catching features of the cabs on the new TGS and TGX trucks by MAN are without doubt the high gloss radiator screens with a strengthening layer of Elastoflex® E. This means they not only look good but also offer improved protection against gravel impact, higher rigidity and thus a perfect surface for this high-stress exterior component on the powerful German trucks.

Production is based on LFI (long fiber injection) laminate composite technology with the PUR (polyurethane) foam system Elastoflex E. A technology that has proven its worth in automobile construction time and time again: for example, in engine hoods for commercial vehicles, automobile roof modules or instrument panel frames – in fact for any components that need to be both light and very rigid.