New regulations lead to more stringent leak rate requirements
All over the world governments are releasing new regulations to lower emissions and fuel consumption and to increase the safety of cars. This month we focus on Chapter 2 of the INFICON e-book, "Leak Testing in the Automotive Industry" and how new regulations also impact the allowable leak rates of components and systems and drive the need for more stringent leak testing. As a result, vehicle manufacturers expect stricter quality control and leak testing from their suppliers.
Stricter regulations and leak testing
Errors in quality control can have very expensive consequences and will damage the manufacturer's image. A recent example is the recall of almost 50 million cars due to malfunctioning air bag gas generators. Currently, airbag gas generators are tested for leaks in the 10-6 mbar∙l/s range. But fuel systems, fuel tanks and fuel lines also have increasingly stricter leak rate requirements in place. One reason for these stricter requirements is the Californian regulations for hydrocarbon emission control. Fuel tanks and fuel lines are often tested for leaks in the 10-4 to 10-6 mbar∙l/s range. These leak rates cannot be detected with methods like water bath of pressure decay testing– such leak rates can only be found with tracer gas testing methods.
Increased leak rate control for new refrigerants
The mobile air conditioning market is also facing a significant change with regard to the new refrigerants. Fluorinated greenhouse gases, such as R134a, will be phased out shortly. As of January 2017 in Europe and with model year 2021 in the US, new cars must no longer use R134a as a refrigerant. New refrigerant alternatives like R1234yf are flammable and present a higher risk in case of a leak. Alternative solutions with the harmless CO2 as refrigerant operate with ten times higher pressures – with correspondingly higher leak rate requirements.
Download the complete comprehensive guide to leak detection, free of charge, at http://www.inficon.com/automotiveindustry-ebook.