TPO has seen a major growth in the exterior applications such as fascias, claddings etc. for the last decade. For automotive interiors the growth has been slow and more in the area of hard feel applications than soft touch applications. Soft interiors are still a challenge due to many reasons including overall system cost. The driving force for TPO in Europe is mainly recyclability while in the USA, it is long-term durability. This paper describes the key limitations of the current TPO systems which are: poor grain retention of TPO skin, shrinkage inconsistency of the skin, high cost of priming (or other treatments) and painting of the skin, lower process window of the semicrystalline TPO material during thermoforming or In-mold lamination / Low pressure molding, high cost of the foam, low tear strength of the foam for deep draw ratio etc. The paper shows the different ways of manufacturing the all olefinic parts which are: thermoforming over PP substrate, different Low pressure molding with inmold lamination techniques, expanded PP foam process, slush molding etc. The limitations for each process and suggestions to overcome the disadvantages will be discussed to make all olefinic TPO interior parts viable and cost effective. The possibility of reducing the overall system cost will also be discussed such as: general information on formulation development to reduce the skin thickness for thermoforming, how to improve the properties of foam to reduce the thickness without affecting the formability and resiliency, value added recyclability of the skin/foam offal from production, and improving the paint efficiency etc.
Requirements for rapid growth of all olefinic automotive interiors
2000
8 Seiten, 3 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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