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 Welded
valve to keep fuel from evaporating into the air
California, the U.S. will enforce the environmental regulation of
a fuel tank system for a new car, Low Emission Vehicle Regulations
(LEV II¾), in stages from 2004. As fuel for automobiles (gasoline,
ethanol) easily evaporates and causes air pollution, it is an urgent
task to find a measure to prevent fuel from permeating the valves
around the fuel tank. The new regulation will require a cut in emitted
fuel from 2g/test to 0.5g/test for a parked car. |
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 Two
materials shut off fuel passage. The ability is ten times up.
TG developed a welded cover for resin fuel tank valves to clear the
regulation. A traditional valve was made of monolayer polyethylene
to weld it to a resin tank. As this product cannot clear the regulation
as a small amount of fuel passes through it, TG started to develop
a two-layer valve. The new welded valve is made of polyethylene (PE)
and polyamide (PA) using a bonding molding method, and shows the better
ability of preventing fuel evaporation. Fuel emission through the
new product is 90% less than the old one, which successfully complies
with LEV II¾. The new product attracted a lot of attention from various
sectors as the first measure of this kind in the world, and has been
introduced to mass-produced cars since the summer of 2002. |
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 We
have also been making efforts to find right measures for related parts
including fuel tubes and gaskets to address the environmental issues
of the whole car system. We will put more emphasis on developing new
measures to comply with environmental regulations. |
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