The MANN+HUMMEL Group introduced what they claim is the world’s first plastic oilpan at the SAE World Congrass in April 2008, and they already have a customer for the oilpan, which they say will introduce a car using the plastic oil pan in the North American market for the 2009 model year.
The new plastic oil pan is expected to weigh about 60% of a traditional oil pan’s weight. It also reduces cost of production by 20%. MANN+HUMMEL is advocating the use of plastic instead of alloys in the engine bay, for the obvious benefits above. Even our Campro IAFM engine has switched to a plastic intake manifold.
MANN+HUMMEL chairman Claude Mathieu says the use of plastic in automotive component design will only get better and offer more benefits in the future because as it is, component designers simply copy the existing metal part and use plastic to make it. The next step would be to learn how plastic responds in different shock and temperature situations and design new plastic-specific components.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
I thought plastic is bad for environment………….
plastic needs oil.
with the infamous road humps and pot holes the size of crater in Mal, i think the plastic oil pan will koyak very soon….
The weight is reduce, but the durability wwill too. Malaysian use a car for a long duration. Not like in Japan, less than 5 years.
Plastic needs oil, true, but the “oil” does not need to come solely from petroleum sources.
Plastics are also less costly to produce, which makes the component cheaper.
Most newer cars now already have a lot of plastic components…valve covers (not the plastic cover that hides your engine) and intake manifolds are already plastic.
sounds like a brilliant idea to use a plastic sump, as long as its durable enough to last the life of the vehicle. Would be good if its recycable too. Perhaps plastic engine heads the next move?
We got lots of plastic already. I takes hundreds of years to completely decompose plastic. I don’t think it’s good for our environment…..
who cares about environment? they’re looking on cost cutting. Anyhow, plastics nowdays can recycle. So i guess it won’t be a big issues. But the questions is, how lasting can it be? Under such extreme heat and shock. Mabbe this is their way of making money whether the pan need to be changed every couple of years. Another issue is whether it gives more heat to the engine since plastics does not help in heat reduction.
i never thought plastics can be that strong and durable..
They are using engineering plastic to make that. If you flip through automative web site, there are many car manufacturers staring to switch into plastic material to reduce the cost and weight. But this is a good ideal to switch the oil pan into plastic pan. Good work though.
hahaha… sounds like another Gen2 Oil sump problem in the making.
end up they have to use some more metal to protect the plastic oil sump.
I have no problem if internal structure of the car is made out of plastic. You cannot see it anyway. If they can replace metal with plastic screws I am fine with that. Lighter car=better fuel economy. Only that for now it is limited to low stress areas.
Plastic = cheaper parts = not so durable = lower cost for maintenance
plastis cannot sell to kelin botoi…..metal can