Faurecia is poised to become the first automotive supplier to mass produce a 100% bio-based plastic with hemp-based fibres and a natural-substance matrix to replace injection-moulded polypropylene.
This was just one of a raft of developments the French-headquartered Tier 1 supplier introduced at last week’s LA Auto Show.
Faurecia joined forces with Japan’s Mitsubishi chemicals to optmise PBS (polybutylene succinate) as the basis for its BioMat.
The obstacles which have been overcome by the two companies in the commercialisation of this product have included eliminating potential degradation, ensuring the stability of the matrix when exposed to the environment, reducing its high viscosity, compensating for the unavoidable variability in the hemp fibres and creating a new and viable manufacturing process to make the material.
BioMat will now begin appearing in vehicles as early as 2016, Faurecia says.
Its introduction follows the use of NAFILean for injected parts that consists of both hemp and polypropylene and has reduced the weight of the door panels in the new Peugeot 308 by between 20-25%.
LigoLite, meanwhile, an 85% wood fibre-based injection moulding product, is employed in the door panels of the latest Mercedes S Class vehicles where it reduces weight by around 45%, while a compression technology called Natural Fiber Polypropylene (NFFP) is used to similar effect in the 2013 Volkswagen Golf.
In addition, Faurecia says the future of lightweighting is largely dependent on composites, and in this area, the company is now developing techniques for high volume production and in particular, examining the substitution of thermosets – which are not easily recycled since they can only be broken into pieces – with thermoplastics.
Thermoplastics can be melted and reused, as well as lending themselves to welding rather than having to be glued or screwed into structures, as is the case with thermosets.
The creation of carbon thermoplastics, however, presents a number of challenges, the company says.
The melting point of the thermoplastic is between 150-160°C and will consequently not tolerate the electro-plating processes employed for all mass-produced vehicles.
In addition, the current production for a thermoset component is just a minute and that with a thermoplastics around 20 minutes, so methods for shortening cycle times are being urgently explored.
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