Other Benefits of Plastic Fuel Tanks

Design Freedom Placing all the parts of the machinery together in a small area such as under the bonnet of a car is quite a challenge. Each part hasn’t necessarily got a form that fits together with the ones next to it. Therefore the space left for a fuel tank is generally of a very complex shape. There are virtually no limits to the shapes that plastics can take but those of our imagination. This makes plastic a material of choice to optimize space. They make it possible to design fuel tanks that occupy all the space available around them, hence increasing the fuel storage capacity of the car and allowing more space for the passenger compartment.

Safety Reducing the likelihood of a fire or explosion occurring after a car crash is possible by using a fuel tank that does not perforate or leak upon the impact. Fuel tanks which can bend and flatten rather than tear, rupture and spill gasoline do exist: they are made of plastics. When a plastic fuel tank is exposed to fire, it is more likely to melt or decompose and allow the contents to flow out and add fuel to the fire. That reduces the risk of explosion and enhances the safety of the car.

Slosh noise-reduction

Car manufacturers keep making efforts to reduce most sounds produced by vehicles and which are often annoying for drivers and passengers. If most of the sounds generally come from the engine, some also come from the fuel sender unit and from the fuel tank in which the fuel slosh was found to generate unpleasant noise. Plastics can help reduce such sounds thanks to their insulating properties.

Alternative Power Train Solution 

Alternative Power Train is used as a synonym for all propulsion systems in a vehicle which are not based on an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) fuelled by gasoline or diesel.

This can be electric powered vehicles with batteries or hydrogen fuelled.

The recent keyword in this area is the so called ‘Hybrid Vehicle’. These vehicles have a combined power train which consists of a regular ICE as known and they have an additional electric motor powered by a battery package. Both power trains can act as single drives or simultaneous in the case of high power demand. This depends very much from the actual driving condition.

The conventional part of this vehicle has a regular fuel system for liquid fuel as it is state of the art today, means a plastic fuel system. Due to less space in the vehicle because of the additional electric package it may be somewhat smaller in storage capacity.

Plastic fuel systems offer their benefits for hybrid vehicles by high design freedom and integration feasibility.