Celanese Materials Shine in Multiple Category Winners at 2024 SPE Automotive Innovation Awards

Celanese Corporation <https://www.celanese.com/> , a global chemical and specialty materials company, earned three category-winning awards at the 53rd 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.”

The SPE Automotive Innovation Awards program is the largest and most prestigious competition in the automotive and plastics industries. To learn more, visit https://speautomotive.com/spe-automotive-div-innovation-awards/ <https://speautomotive.com/spe-automotive-div-innovation-awards/> .

Three materials within the Celanese Engineered Materials portfolio have been named in winning applications at this year’s SPE Automotive Innovation Awards. From left to right: Chassis / Hardware category winner “Half Shaft Rear Axle Diaphragm Boots”  – Hytrel® TPC-ET; Powertrain category winner “Plastic Coolant Hub” – Zytel® PA66; and Safety category winner “Busbar Cable Support Bracket” –  Celanex® PBT. Images can be downloaded from this SPE <https://www.flickr.com/photos/speautomotive/albums/72177720321428128/with/54055666525>  Automotive Division Flickr album.

About Celanese

Celanese <http://www.celanese.com/>  is a global leader in chemistry, producing specialty material solutions <https://www.celanese.com/en/products>  used across most major industries and consumer applications. Our businesses use our chemistry, technology and commercial expertise to create value for our customers, employees and shareholders. We are committed to sustainability <https://www.celanese.com/en/corporate-sustainability-strategy>  by responsibly managing the materials we create for their entire lifecycle and are growing our portfolio of sustainable products to meet increasing customer and societal demand. We strive to make a positive impact in our communities and to foster inclusivity across our teams. Celanese is a Fortune 500 company that employs approximately 12,400 employees worldwide with 2023 net sales of $10.9 billion.