The automotive industry is the third largest consumer industry of polymer materials after packaging and construction. By using engineering plastics with recyclable components, automobile companies around the world are increasingly relying on limited resources for production.
To meet this demand, LANXESS, the world’s leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and polymer materials based in Cologne, Germany, has worked closely with leaders in the automotive industry to develop a series of recycled glass fiber reinforcements suitable Polyamide for the manufacture of auto parts.
The development of new technologies for more efficient manufacturing As people are increasingly concerned about climate change, environmental degradation and rising raw material prices, sustainability has become a strategic focus of automotive companies. Through engineering and innovation, companies in the industry continue to develop new technologies to solve these problems.
Additive manufacturing technology can achieve higher material efficiency parts design, and use highly reusable advanced 3D printing materials to reduce the environmental impact of the final product.
However, in mass production, additive manufacturing is much less than injection molding (currently the most commonly used manufacturing process for automotive plastic parts). The initial investment of a large amount of energy and resources related to the mold design and manufacturing process, as well as plastic waste in the form of gates and burrs (the technical cavity of the excess filling material and the openings in the mold), which must be removed from the finished parts and recycle and re-use. This constitutes a major obstacle to sustainable injection molding manufacturing.
Injection molded plastic components that reduce environmental impact
As one of the major suppliers of composite materials for the global automotive industry, LANXESS is in a very advantageous position to provide solutions that can reduce high environmental costs and carbon footprint.
Leveraging on the long-standing technical expertise of LANXESS’ high-performance materials business unit, the company has expanded its Durethan® polyamide-based reinforced composite material range to include reinforced recycled glass fiber products.
Polyamide is one of the most versatile engineering thermoplastics, widely used in the automotive industry, consumer goods manufacturing, and a range of electrical and electronic applications. Polyamide material has excellent high temperature and resistance properties, and its partially crystalline structure makes it chemically resistant.
The glass fiber reinforced polyamide of the Durethan® series has extremely strong resilience, so it can be used as a substitute for traditional metal alloys. These characteristics make reinforced polyamides useful for components that may withstand significant impacts and must ensure safe impact energy dissipation, such as radiators, headlight covers, and other structural components of automotive front-end components.