Plastics News Europe - June 2019 - 10

automotive plastics

megatrends in automotive industry
drive materials development
Mobility trends are impacting the types
of plastics required by the automotive
industry. A challenge? Yes, but also an
opportunity, said participants in the PIAE
- Plastics in Automotive Engineering -
conference this year in Mannheim.

ey trends influencing mobility
today are electrification, autonomous driving, connectivity, car
sharing, urbanisation and the circular
economy, all of which are changing
the way we experience mobility said
ContiTech CEO Hans Jürgen Duensing in his keynote presentation at the
opening of the conference. And it is
vital to address these issues, among
other ways, through vehicle design
and material selection.
"We associate mobility with functionality, fun and emotion. Looking at
these trends, this will change drastically," said Duensing.
Autonomous driving will lead to
new requirements for the interior, and
the materials used in the interior, as it
will no longer be the 'cockpit' it is now.
Car sharing, another trend, will
bring with it discussions about responsibility and liability. However,
cleanliness is another issue, which
must be taken into account when selecting the materials used; the use of
durable materials will be vital.
Urbanisation has led to traffic congestion with as result that fewer and
fewer city dwellers travel by car, preferring public transportation instead. "We
may need to design a wholly different
kind of vehicle for city use if we don't
want cars to be pushed aside in favour
of mass transit," he pointed out.
Permanent connectivity is another
feature users will demand in all future
cars which will require sensor systems
to be built into the vehicle. More computer power on board will also serve
to enhance safety, as computers react

Volkswagen's Christine Schütz talked about the use
of sustainable materials in the automotive industry

Do we need to put cars on a diet to satisfy the
mobility trend? The short answer: Yes! - Keynote
speaker Hans Jürgen Duensing, CEO ContiTech

faster than the human brain - although many drivers - 57%, according to Duensing - remain unconvinced,
and reject the vehicle safety technologies that can save lives.
E-mobility comes with a set of issues
of its own, the main one of which is
battery 'health': "Good thermal management of the battery is essential for
its performance," said Duensing.
"Lightweight plastics can do the job."
Environmental considerations are
compelling car manufacturers to be
creative in where to shed weight in order to be able to meet the mandatory
emission reduction targets of the EU.
Here, metal replacement opens the
door for new plastics application in vehicles. Recycling and recycled materials will also increasingly be used.
"We can't stop trends from becoming reality, so we need to address
them. But in my view, they do offer a
fantastic opportunity for the plastics
industry to 'step on the gas pedal'.
Plastics are an important material and
need a higher degree of acceptance
in the car industry. Now is the time,"
said Duensing.

Mobility for all
How are the auto manufacturers responding to the current mobility
megatrends? In various ways, but Renault is putting its money on electrification, said Gerard Liraut. "We do
not foresee any other radical new
technology being developed. Our vision is mobility for all, via autonomous driving and electrification.
Obstacles that need to be overcome include more powerful batteries and reducing the weight of the
vehicle. "Weight is an important enemy," he stressed. And while much

work has been done to shed weight
from the body in white, "we need to
look further" - at the windscreens,
for example.
Materials are the interface between the user of the car and the
car, Liraut noted. Plastics will enable
function integration and provide the
active and haptic surfaces needed in
cars for safety purposes. "Plastic materials will be needed with 'smell-killers', to eliminate odours, if car sharing is to be successful. Likewise,
anti-static and anti-microbial properties will also be needed in the interior," he noted. Other desirable features for the automotive polymers of
the future include hypoallergenic,
antiscratch and self-healing properties. More green materials will also
be used, if affordable. "We see the
percentage of polymer use rising
from 20% to 30% by 2040," he
concluded.

Recycled plastics as a
strategy
At Volvo Cars, the problem of marine
litter, which the company came faceto-face with during its participation in
the Volvo Ocean Race, sparked the
ambition to take steps internally to
protect the environment. Thus the
idea of a demo car in which all possible components made from plastic
were replaced by components made
of recycled plastic was born.
"We were able to replace 170
components in total, putting in 60 kg
of recycled material and eliminating an
equal amount of virgin plastics," explained Sandra Tostar, a materials engineer who was on the project team.
Two-thirds of the components were in
the interior and included all textiles.

june 2019

Plastics News Europe - June 2019

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