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With increasing electronic function and sophistication in automobiles, optical fibers provide an attractive alternative to copper based media. Lower labor and component costs make polymer optical fibers (POF) preferable for this application to fibers based on silica. An analysis of the system budget for star networks which use POF shows that these should perform more than adequately for automotive applications. The implementation of such networks requires branching elements and we describe here the fabrication and evaluation of Y-couplers and star couplers for this purpose.

Glass reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) polyester molding resins are currently used in various applications for automobiles. These include assemblies such as windshield wiper plenums. Expanding its use into new applications requires that the molded polyester part be able to withstand additional automotive fabrication steps and be tough and dimensionally stable in use. While PET based material is currently used for applications that are affixed to the car body after oven treatment, customers have specifically expressed the need to simplify the automobile assembly sequence by using materials that can withstand the 200°C ovens used to cure car body coatings. Existing commercial grades do not meet all of the additional specific dimensional requirements, although the heat deflection temperature at 1.8 MPa of these types of materials can be well above 200 °C.

The advent of flexible fuels has created a need in the automotive industry for materials that perform in the exceptionally aggressive environment of alternate fuels. This Paper outlines an extensive alternate fuel testing study by Hoechst Celanese of five different crystalline engineering thermoplastics including Acetal Copolymer, Nylon 6/6, Polyphenylene Sulfide, PBT Polyester, and Liquid Crystal Polymer. These five base resins were used in unfilled, glass fiber reinforced, impact modified, glass/mineral reinforced, and long–glass fiber reinforced grades. All the materials were tested in Fuel C, Auto–Oxidized (sour gas), and Aggressive Fuel with M25, M50, M85 at 60°C and 121°C. The driving force motivating Hoechst Celanese to evaluate their crystalline engineering thermoplastics is the automotive industries shift towards alternate fuels and higher operating temperatures.