BASF and L&L Products have developed a battery protection solution for the 2022 F-150 Lightning, which is to begin arriving on dealers’ lots this spring.

The companies worked together to reduce the size of the cross-member, which is part of the battery system, without compromising strength, according to a joint news release from BASF and L&L Products. The crossmember is a structural section designed to withstand high loads –keeping both the battery and occupant safe in the vehicle.

“We were able to use a solution featuring L&L’s Products’ Continuous Composites Systems (CCS) and BASF’s Elastocoat 74850 polyurethane pultrusion system that eliminated the need for extensive redesign of the crossmember while providing strength, stiffness and rigidity to a lightweight structure,“ said BASF Performance Materials Chassis Market Segment Manager Chris Korson, in the release.

Ford touts the all-electric pickup truck as “the smartest, most connected F-150 Ford has ever built” and expects it to be certified as a zero tailpipe emissions vehicle.

CCS combines a fiber-reinforced pultruded composite carrier with highly engineered sealants and adhesives in a 2D profile to create straight or curved composite profiles that are reinforced with continuous fibers and mats.

“This innovation also shares three firsts for CCS,” said L&L Products Product Engineering Manager Hank Richardson, in the release. “One being the first developed closed section tubular CCS part, the second being the first CCS body-in-white application, and the third being the first use of CCS in an electric vehicle.”

The crossmember was also the first application for BASF’s Elastocoat 74850 polyurethane pultrusion system to be implemented prior to the E-Coat process. A new computer simulation methodology was also developed using BASF’s proprietary CAE modeling software, Ultrasim, to show the behavior of the pultruded structures and accurately capture the additional load after failure that a composite provides, according to the release.

IMAGES

Featured image: 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum (Photo provided by BASF and Ford)

F-150 Lightning cross-member (Photo provided by BASF)

More information

Trend of lightweighting likely to accelerate, suppliers to OEMs agree