Freudenberg All Geared Up for Non-Combustion

With its global wealth built on sealing internal combustion engines to keep them 100 percent leak-free, Freudenberg-NOK is not blinking at a future of battery-powered electric vehicles.

In a statement, Matthew Portu, president of Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies, says they have sealing technologies in both camps. “The recent announcement by Tesla that it had orders for 325,000 new cars was music to our ears.”

He notes that vehicles reliant on electric batteries need their own range of seals, and an important part of that work needs sealing each battery cell from the next.

Internal combustion engines have a number of connections and valves that should be sealed to guarantee engine pressure. Freudenberg-NOK has built an empire that supplies big catalogs of gaskets and seals to support the conventional technology. However, battery propulsion is a slowly rising star when it comes to the future of automotive powertrains. Apart from their appearance on electric vehicles such as the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf, battery drives are contributing to BMWS, Fords, Chevrolets and other hybrids and plug-in hybrids.

Portu claims that Freudenberg-NOK’s seals appear on 100 percent of all vehicles built in the United States. The company supplies Tesla with radial shaft seals for its driveline boots, powertrains, O-rings, different gaskets, and other components.

Freudenberg-NOK produced $2.5 billion in the seal business last year, an increase of approximately one percent from the previous year. Portu reveals Freudenberg-NOK is on a campaign to reduce sales and administrative costs at the company, which employs around 5,000 in North America, to channel more of its finances into R&D on new sealing products.

The efforts of customers to reduce vehicle emissions calls for the supplier’s development of new low-emission sealing solutions, which help reduce powertrain friction.

Demonstrating the urgency for the latest innovations in the conventional product line, Portu highlights that one-third of its 2015 sales came from sealing products that are less than four years old.