AUTOSTEEL | Steel Fuel Tanks: Plastic and Steel Take Different Roads to Tanks

Plastic and Steel Take Different Roads to Tanks

Although the plastics industry has not established a global partnership the way the steel industry has to develop automotive fuel tanks capable of meeting tough future environmental standards, plastics companies are working diligently on new product designs. Plastics came a long way in the fuel tank market in the 1990s, capturing applications from steel in a lot of vehicle platforms, and has no intention of giving back that business without a fight.

The steel industry's partnership, called the Strategic Alliance for Steel Fuel Tanks (SASFT), is developing metal tank designs it says will be tight enough to meet California's Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV) requirements. But plastic tank manufacturers also are developing new designs--individually--they believe will work. Although fuel tanks aren't the biggest parts in cars and trucks, both industries want the tank market all to themselves and it will be interesting to see what plastics companies can do without working together in an alliance. Manufacturers of plastic tanks include Inergy Automotive Systems SA, Paris, which is thought to have nearly 28 percent of the market; the Kautex division of Textron Automotive Co., Troy, Mich., which is believed to have a slightly smaller share of the business; the Automotive Systems division, Abingdon, England, and Warren, Mich., of TI Group Plc; Visteon Corp., Dearborn, Mich.; and Mannesmann VDO AG of Germany. These major players in the business each appears to be going its own way in the development of advanced tank designs and methods for making tanks that will comply with the toughest foreseeable emissions requirements.

By most accounts, the plastics industry currently has a little more than half the auto fuel tank market globally, so it has come a long way since mounting its biggest efforts in the early 1990s. There was a time not long before then when the steel industry had the tank market all to itself. Arguably, the fuel tank market currently is more important to plastic than it is to steel, because it accounts for 5 or 6 percent of the plastic content in today's family vehicles, whereas even if all fuel tanks were still being made of steel, those parts would account for only 1 percent or so of the total steel content in a typical auto.

It appears that the plastic tank manufacturers are all taking different approaches to the design of advanced tanks that will meet tougher emissions standards--competing against each other at a time when their collective experience and wisdom arguably might serve their common interests better.

Most steel and plastics companies are looking at the entire fuel system in their new design programs because vapor leaks can occur at the tank or anywhere along the fuel line to the engine. One way to limit leaks is to place as many fuel system components as possible inside the tank, so various plastic tank manufacturers are trying to develop strategies for doing that--again, independent of each other. How they do it is being kept secret at each company.

It would be easy to criticize plastic tank manufacturers and their materials and parts suppliers for not banding together to develop systems that will meet future regulations, including PZEV. Not only might things go easier if they did work together cooperatively, but the products of such a partnership might be better. However, no one really knows what those companies are able to do on their own, and it would be pretentious to prejudge their work before the results are in.

One thing that's very clear is that environmental regulations are now challenging both plastics and steel companies to come up with altogether new tank and fuel system designs. For the steelmakers, these regulations have opened a door of opportunity, and they are putting some of their industry's best minds to work on developing tanks made of painted low-carbon steel and stainless steel, along with the most appropriate tank-manufacturing specifications. Through SASFT, they've got a chance to provide automakers with an uncomplicated design approach that works, rather than a host of possibilities that might make customers feel like flipping a coin.

What's going to count most to the automakers, however, are product performance, durability, cost, weight and design flexibility. The last two considerations might be the most difficult for steel, and that's where the collective thinking of the partnership's members may be needed the most. This is not going to be an easy task for steel, because automakers have got used to plastic tanks, which have done their job well up to now.

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CONTACT:
Deanna Lorincz
Director, Automotive
Communications
American Iron and Steel Institute
tel: 248.945.4763
fax: 248.352.1740