Polymers that survive million-mile duty.
Underhood heat, vibration and fatigue are where truck plastics fail. Design it against those loads, with the source behind every rule.
Book a pre-tooling review →
Commercial Truck & Engine OEM Engineering
Heavy-Duty Polymers for Million-Mile Duty Cycles
Diesel. Hybrid. Battery-electric. A Class 8 truck is engineered for a million miles, rebuilds, and decades of service — and its plastic parts have to match. ETS brings 41 years of plastics design, material selection, and failure-analysis practice to truck and engine OEM programs, from high-heat underhood parts to the weight and aero that pay for themselves in fuel and payload.
Talk to an Engineering Team →Purpose-built for program, design, and materials engineers who own the part through a million-mile duty cycle.
DieselHybrid (HEV)Fuel-Agnostic EngineBattery-Electric (BEV)Hydrogen (H2)
Why Truck Polymers Are a Different Discipline
A passenger car retires in a few years. A truck runs a million miles, idles through deserts and winters, gets washed in chemicals, and gets rebuilt for its next owner. Every part must survive longer, run hotter, and weigh less — because every kilogram is payload and every point of drag is fuel.
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High-Heat Underhood Materials
EPA-2027 engine programs — Cummins' X10 launching in 2026, PACCAR's two EPA-2027 engines in final development — reopen under-hood qualification for composite valve covers, air intake, and fuel-system parts. Glass-filled nylons and high-heat resins, selected and designed for sustained underhood temperatures.
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Chemical & Thermal Resistance
Diesel, diesel exhaust fluid, coolant chemistries, road salt, and wash-down chemicals — plus hot-and-cold cycling on every line. Material selection here is a failure-analysis problem before it is a datasheet problem.
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Vibration, Fatigue & NVH
A million miles of road input finds every snap-fit, boss, and weld line. We teach the joint and fastening designs — and the fatigue and NVH behavior — that hold up where a passenger-car part would never be asked to.
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Weight & Aero That Pay for Themselves
Weight is payload in a Class 8, and drag is fuel. International's S13 Integrated Powertrain pairs with an aero package worth up to 15% fuel-efficiency gain — polymer design decisions show up directly on fleet fuel bills.
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Durability & Serviceability
Truck parts get serviced, replaced, and remanufactured across multiple owners and duty cycles. Design for disassembly, reassembly, and field repair is part of the discipline — not an afterthought.
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Honest Electrification
Electrified trucks are real programs — PACCAR's Kenworth and Peterbilt battery-electric medium-duty trucks enter 2026 production with packs up to 375 kWh — while diesel still carries roughly three-quarters of the heavy market. We prepare your team for both: HV enclosures, cooling loops, and battery-tray composites, without the hype.
What Your Engineering Team Takes Back
Our seminar, training, and consulting packages are built for commercial-truck and engine OEM engineering orgs that need working methods, not theory — on the programs your teams actually run.
Live Seminar
Designing Plastic Parts for Assembly — 3 Days, 1,300+ Slides
Structural analysis, material screening, and DFM decision tools, taught by Paul A. Tres — SPE Fellow and author of the industry-standard text, now in its 10th edition. Case histories from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, GM, Chrysler, and Delphi production programs, directly transferable to truck cab, chassis, and powertrain parts.
Consulting Retainer
Design Review & Program Support
Catch warpage, sink marks, and draft errors before tooling — on EPA-2027 engine parts, aero components, or battery enclosures. Fixed-price reviews, program launch support, and a senior engineer on call for your sticky material or process questions.
ETS Academy
Institutionalize the Method
100+ hours of structured training with monthly coaching, so design, materials, and process engineers align on one methodology across your whole organization — not just the three people who attended.
ChatETS
The Plastics Answer Engine, Free
Trained on 41 years of ETS failure data. Ask it about an underhood air-intake duct, a DEF-line fitting, or a battery-tray composite and get DFM-grade materials and failure answers in seconds. One real question, free, no credit card.
The 2026 Program Reality — Read Honestly
2026 is a heavy year for truck powertrains, and every one of these programs is a polymer qualification event. The honest picture: diesel still dominates, efficiency is the product, and electrification is growing from a small base.
EPA 2027: A Robust Slate of New Engines
Cummins' X10 fuel-agnostic engine launches in North America in 2026 — diesel first, gaseous versions to follow — EPA-2027 compliant a year early. PACCAR has two EPA-2027-compliant engines in final development. Every new engine family re-opens under-hood polymer qualification: high-temperature materials, chemical resistance, and vibration life.
Fuel Economy Is the Product
International's S13 Integrated Powertrain — engine, transmission, and aftertreatment designed together — pairs with an aero package worth up to 15% fuel-efficiency gain, and ready-mix fleets have run it at 7.2 mpg. Weight and aerodynamics are polymer-design problems, and they pay for themselves on every mile.
Electrification: Hybrids Now, Battery-Electric a Marathon
Hybrid drivetrains put engine cooling and battery cooling on the same vehicle today — two thermal loops and a fresh set of failure modes. PACCAR's Kenworth T280E/T380E/T480E battery-electric medium-duty trucks enter 2026 production with up to 375 kWh and 350 kW DC charging; Mercedes-Benz Trucks' eArocs 400 construction EV starts sales in 2026; hydrogen engines like Cummins' B6.7H raise new seal and material-compatibility questions. Diesel is still expected to carry about three-quarters of the heavy-truck market in 2026. We prepare your team for the full spread — no hype, no apology.
The Credential That Holds Up in a Re-Qualification
Our data comes from real production programs — not textbooks. Forty years of failure-analysis practice, plus the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards ecosystem we track every year, is what your team picks up. When a powertrain strategy shifts, hundreds of parts need re-qualifying — that's a DFM moment.
41+
Years of Engineering
500+
Companies Served
19,800+
Engineers Trained
10th
Edition of the Standard Text
Built for the people who decide
Whoever signs off, the answer holds up.
A commercial-truck decision crosses four desks before it ships. Here is what ETS gives each of them.
Risk you can put a number on.
A fixed-price pre-tooling review starts at $3,500. One line of the failure ledger costs $10K–$75K once steel is cut. Seats, training and engineering hours can share a single annual agreement.
What a review covers →An expert built for cross-examination.
Fellow of SPE and author of the field’s standard text. Expert-witness work since 1997. A conflict check comes first, and availability, a CV and fees follow within one business day.
Request a conflict check →Simple to buy, easy to audit.
Pay by check, ACH, purchase order or card. Fixed price where applicable, with scope, timeline and quote agreed before work begins, and an NDA signed on request before we see anything.
Start the paperwork →Ready to Give Your Next Truck Program Its DFM Edge?
Tell us about your program — an EPA-2027 under-hood part, a weight or aero target, an NVH complaint at a million miles, or a battery enclosure you're bringing in-house. A senior engineer replies within one business day with a scoped next step, fixed price where applicable, and timeline. Nothing you share leaves ETS; we'll sign an NDA before we look at anything.
Contact Engineering →