ContiTech goes for plastics blow-moulding

ERJ staff report (DS)

Waltershausen, Germany -- ContiTech Fluid Technology is breaking into plastic production at its plant in Waltershausen, Thuringia, Germany. The company has historically focussed almost exclusively on rubber technology.

Plastic parts for charge air lines, which were formerly purchased, are manufactured here using blow molding. “This allows us to boost our share of the value added chain and combine our market leadership in elastomer charge air hoses with a forward-looking technology that has a considerable edge over metal in terms of weight and cost,” points out the general manager of ContiTech Fluid Technology, Günter Frölich.

The plastic parts made in Waltershausen are then assembled further in Hann. Münden or Carei, Romania, where the hoses for the turbocharger lines are made. BMW is the first customer to be served with charge air lines equipped with plastic parts from Waltershausen. Before long, blow molding will be used for other products as well.

“There is an increasing market demand for wholly plastic or plastic/elastomer solutions,” says Hannes Friederichsen, head of the Heating, Cooling and Turbocharger segment. Because plastic is not only a relatively inexpensive material, it is also a light material. The weight reduction that vehicles can achieve with these parts lowers their fuel consumption, contributes to the protection of the climate and environment, and thereby meets the requirements of sustainable mobility.

In Waltershausen a workforce of some 770 makes cooling water and air-conditioning hoses, printing blankets and compounds.

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Press release from Continental