Comprehensive design support and collaboration across materials won award

Celanese Corporation earned three category-winning awards at the 53^rd annual Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Automotive Innovation Awards Competition and Gala last night in Livonia, MI.

Hytrel^® TPC-ET, Zytel^® PA66, and Celanex^® PBT proved worthy of this year’s awards theme, “Power of Plastics,” and were featured in the following category-winning advanced mobility applications:

Chassis / Hardware Winner – Half Shaft Rear Axle Diaphragm Boots: Neapco developed injection-molded diaphragm boots to replace blow-molded designs for the 2024 Ford E-Transit. High MFR, low-viscosity Hytrel^® TPC-ET from Celanese brings high flex fatigue resistance and contributes 15% weight reduction and 17% material savings in the molded boots. Celanese support included mold filling simulations to eliminate defects such as air traps and weld lines.

Powertrain Winner – Plastic Coolant Hub: Cooper Standard Automotive created a leak-tight hub for the 2025 Ford Mustang Mach E to improve EV coolant system efficiency. Integrating multiple tubes, fittings and connectors into a compact manifold reduces tubing length by 1.23 meters and system weight by 5%. It achieves a 50% reduction in packaging space and a significant decrease in coolant pressure drop. Zytel^® PA66 performs well in the three molded components in the laser-welded hub.

Safety Winner – Busbar Cable Support Bracket: Grand Traverse Plastics designed this bracket for the 2025 Cadillac CELESTIQ. It prevents thermal runaway and high-voltage arcing by minimizing cable motion, and eliminates over ten fasteners to simplify assembly. Using UL94 Celanex^® PBT and PPS enables removing a metallic retention feature and a snap-fit design, which provides 240N of axial retention force with a single fastener. The ergonomic design reduces assembly time and scrap costs by up to 99%, maintaining high-voltage safety standards.

“In tandem with our customers in this dynamic industry, we're pushing boundaries,” said Carl Sullivan, automotive market development director for Celanese. “These award-winning innovations highlight the benefit of collaborating with us early in the design phase, resulting in materials and components that point towards a more sustainable and resilient automotive future.”