South Korea's Initz is a joint venture between SK Chemicals and Teijin in South Korea. The company partnered with Hyundai Mobis, a global auto parts supplier, to commercialize its Ecotran polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). According to reports, Ecotran is the material of choice for headlight fogging.
"Light fog" is a chronic car headlamp problem. The reason for this is that when the temperature inside the car's lampshade rises above 200 ° C, the plastic parts inside the headlamp will start to produce gas. After cooling, the gas condenses and solidifies, sticking to the inside of the transparent lamp lens. The resulting film disrupts light projection, thereby undermining the safety of drivers and pedestrians at night. In addition, this condition adversely affects the appearance of the headlights of the car.
This grade of PPS uses a solvent-free and chlorine-free production process, which can minimize the emission of exhaust gas and impurities, and neither produce residual solvents nor produce by-product sodium chloride. Because plastic produces gas at high temperatures, the occurrence of lamp fog is inevitable. Many global automotive parts engineers have solved this problem by focusing on the design of the internal structure of the headlights, because to solve it fundamentally, no other suitable solution has been found.
In close cooperation with Hyundai Mobis, Initz solved the fog and haze problem of light bulbs by using glass fiber and new materials produced using specially formulated resins. This grade is produced using a chlorine-free process and does not contain any residual solvents.
Initz's PPS compounds have been tested in a systematic, harsh environment to prove their reliability. In this test, a headlight made of new material was used for three consecutive months to cycle through eight test samples for 70 hours. Hyundai Mobis said that in the future, it will use Initz's PPS material in all headlights to completely eliminate the fog.
In view of the fact that its PPS resin solves the fog and haze problem of headlamps, Initz is expected to gain better competitive advantages in automotive materials in global competition. Headlamps are one of the key components that determine the appearance of vehicles.