In 2023, Bodycote began work on a major new multi-year contract to provide efficient processing of automotive parts destined for hybrid vehicles, using low pressure carburising. The win marked another key milestone in the Group’s efforts to transition customers into adopting newer, lower-carbon heat treatment processes.
Bodycote won the contract with a key supplier to a leading global automaker and is providing heat treatment services for a number of parts in the vehicles’ driveline system.
Instead of quoting for services using traditional processing methods, as the customer had requested, Bodycote proposed low pressure carburising (LPC) for the customers’ parts. The LPC process enables a significant reduction in the amount of energy required to achieve the same metallurgical properties for a product. It cuts processing time by around 20% and the amount of energy required by 50%. Process gas – needed to achieve carburisation – is also reduced by 99% in LPC technology.
As the LPC process uses electricity, as opposed to gas, it also enables a continuous reduction in products’ carbon footprints as the grid becomes increasingly decarbonised over time. Through the application of our specialist knowledge and expertise, Bodycote successfully transitioned the customer to a process that will enable them to achieve significant emissions avoidance and provide low carbon revenue growth at high margins for Bodycote at the same time.