Brand Now

Discovering Hyosung Advanced Materials Hidden in Today’s Mobility Solutions

One could say that another word for mobility is freedom- the freedom to leave for someplace anytime from anywhere. Mobility allows us to circumvent the constraints of space and time. Commuting to work every morning, meeting with friends, going on a trip or taking a short break, and meeting family members who live far away, all these things would be difficult without mobility. Mobility has been a part of human life for a long time.

In comparison with walking at an average speed of 4 km/h, traveling at an average speed of 80 km/h in a car each day seems beyond human capability. Since mobility entails great risks, high-performance components and materials that provide safety and convenience are essential in moving vehicles.

Hyosung Advanced Materials, a global specialist in materials, supplies a considerable variety of such materials. Do you know how many Hyosung products there are inside a single car? Today, we’ll take a close look at some of the Hyosung Advanced Materials products that are hidden in automobiles.

Introduction to Mobility (101), Safety Devices in Cars

Do you remember your very first driving lesson? When you take driving lessons, the first thing you learn is how to put on the safety belt. Hyosung Advanced Materials is the world’s top supplier of polyester yarn for seatbelts. Just as a top supplier should, Hyosung Advanced Materials realized the importance of yarn in automobile seatbelts long ago and has been producing seatbelt yarns since 1987.

As the material for seatbelts directly affects safety, the company pursued a high degree of durability without missing any tiny details.

Seatbelts produced by Hyosung Advanced Materials have excellent dyeability and wear resistance as well as tight control over appearance

Today it produces diverse types of seatbelt yarn (low denier, black spun dyed, etc.) that meet different needs. It is claimed that seatbelts alone can reduce the car accident fatality rate by 45%; therefore, you must never forget to fasten your seatbelt whenever you get in a car.

Hyosung Advanced Materials is the only top global company to manufacture all of the airbag yarns, fabrics, coatings, and cushions that make up an airbag. Airbags have a variety of shapes and functions, not just for the steering wheel but for other places inside a car, too. The driver airbag, or DAB, is installed in the steering wheel to protect the driver, while the passenger airbag (PAB) protects the person in the front passenger seat, and the knee airbag is designed to protect the knees. Meanwhile, the curtain airbag drops from the ceiling and offers protection against side collisions, while the side airbag (SAB) inflates from the side of the seat to protect the upper torso of the passenger. The airbag cushions made by Hyosung Advanced Materials that go into these different types of airbags can be found hidden in various parts of your car.

Hyosung Advanced Materials manufactures airbag fabrics and owns Global Safety Textiles (GST), the world's largest airbag fabric supplier. A world leader in airbag fabric manufacturing, Hyosung Advanced Materials excels in both technology and quality. Global manufacturing hubs in North America, Europe, and Asia provide the company’s products worldwide.

A shoe that fits your car perfectly!

What is the only part of an automobile that comes into direct contact with the surface of the road? It is the tire, of course. Tires, which we could say are the shoes of the car, hugely affect ride quality, handling, vibration, noise, and fuel efficiency – qualities that are generally considered to be the basic characteristics of any car. In addition, tires must be able to withstand unpredictable road conditions and the weight of the whole vehicle. For these reasons, reinforcements like tire cords are essential components of automobile tires.

With its own technology, Hyosung Advanced Materials successfully developed the country’s first nylon-based tire cord in 1968, followed by of a polyester-based tire cord in 1978. Each tire cord is assembled from several different parts, each of which requires its own unique material.

The tire cords developed by Hyosung Advanced Materials, as well as other tire reinforcements made by the company, can be found in the tires of the car you are driving today.

In addition to PET tire cords, currently the world's bestselling tire cord, Hyosung Advanced Materials also manufactures nylon tire cords, steel cords, and bead-wire and supplies them to global tire manufacturers. It can be argued that one out of every two cars in the world uses PET tire cords made by Hyosung Advanced Materials.

These days, a great deal of research and development are being conducted on tire reinforcements to meet the growing demand for environmentally-friendly mobility solutions. Recently, Hyosung Advanced Materials has developed high-strength PET tire cords and aramid-based tire cords to enhance fuel efficiency, and these are already being used in many tire products. In addition, the company is currently developing recycled PET made with discarded PET bottles, recycled steel cords made using an induction furnace, bead wire technology, and tire cords made from environmentally-friendly materials like bio-based PET and bio-based nylon.

Will a new wonderous material show up in my car?

Are you a person who drives a hydrogen car to preserve and protect the environment? The carbon fiber manufactured by Hyosung Advanced Materials is also used as the material for hydrogen fuel tanks. To store and transport hydrogen safely, a large container is needed due to its a high weight-to-energy density ratio and a large volume. For this reason, hydrogen is usually compressed with high pressure for storage purposes. Carbon fiber is the most suitable material for this purpose due to its low weight, high elasticity, and excellent thermal conductivity. Originally developed by Hyosung Advanced Materials in South Korea, carbon fiber is ten times stronger and seven times more elastic than steel. A hydrogen fuel storage tank made of carbon fiber weighs only half as much as a similarly-sized tank made of metal and thus can increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles.

Besides the hydrogen fuel storage tank, carbon fiber’s excellent strength and light weight have made it an ideal material for a broad range of car components designed to increase fuel efficiency. Carbon fiber is used as the main material for monocoques (a type of automobile frame), wheels, bonnets, and sunroof frames, and its scope of application continues to expand. In order to meet the increasing demand for carbon fiber, Hyosung Advanced Materials is planning to invest a total of one trillion won by 2028. This will enable it to expand the capacity of its Jeonju plant to 24,000 tons. Phase 2 of this expansion project has already been completed, and Phase 3 is scheduled for completion in April 2023.

Transforming your car into your own personal hideout!

As a temporary refuge from adverse weather conditions like cold winds and a form of escape from a hectic, noisy world, a car can provide a cozy private escape. This is why so many of us like to take a drive whenever we need to clear our minds. Hyosung Advanced Materials is a leading supplier of car carpets, which make our car the most comfortable places to hide away.

Floor carpets and mats are the two main types of carpets installed in cars. Floor carpets are molded to fit the shape of a car’s steel frame and are essential components of a car, unlike mats which are classed as an optional feature. As well as providing comfort and cushioning, carpets reduce noise and vibration and absorbing impacts. On the other hand, mats that are laid on top of the floor carpet help to prevent the floor carpet (which is difficult to replace) from getting contaminated by dirt and moisture while simultaneously serving as a cushion that relieves fatigue in one’s feet and improve the aesthetic of the interior of a car.

Image 4. BCF yarns and carpets / Expression: Photograph

Hyosung Advanced Materials produces carpets using BCF (bulked continuous filament) method, which makes them unique. With this method, each strand of yarn is produced individually, which results in a special yarn with excellent bulkiness (the characteristic of swelling in volume) and restoring force (the characteristic of bouncing back when pressed). Passengers and driver’s shoes always contact carpets, which wear out the carpet quickly. However, car carpets made with BCF yarn do not wear out easily compared to those made with regular nonwoven yarn, thanks to their ability to bulk up like a cotton ball. Floor carpets made from BCF yarn also reduce interior noise in cars by as much as 30%. It is undeniable that BCF is an essential product for comfortable driving.

Today, we’ve examined in detail some of the products by Hyosung Advanced Materials makes for automobile. From safety to ride comfort, Hyosung Advanced Materials assumes responsibility for the quality of your car through its unstinting focus on material engineering. Providing uniform quality and flexible services to its customers is one of the hallmarks of Hyosung Advanced Materials.