Not Art. Low Emissions.
While the object shown here might bring some piece of modern sculpture to mind, it is actually a fastener for the seat covers in the new Mercedes B-Class.
Gary S. Vasilash
Editor-in-Chief, Automotive Design & Production
Plastics & the Total Materials Matrix
“Steel, in particular, has redoubled its efforts,” Paul Spevetz, product marketing manager, Automotive Interior/Exterior for Ticona Engineering Polymers (ticona.com), acknowledges, speaking to the issues of the greater deployment of plastics in automotive applications, particularly on exteriors.When it comes to interiors, plastics have a solid position.
Metal to Plastic Under the Hood
Several plastic makers are now producing components and subsystems once considered the sole domain of steel and-yes-even aluminum. Thermoplastic can mean up to a 30 to 40% weight reduction over equivalent metal components in many under hood applications, but cost reductions have gained the most attention. That's right: plastic components being cost competitive with metal.
NPE & New Machinery
When the National Plastics Exposition rolls into Chicago, equipment manufacturers come up with some new or better ways to process plastics. Here's a look at what some of the builders exhibited.
Looks Great. Less Weighty
Chrysler is on the fast-track to the 21st century with the ESX2, a polymer-intensive vehicle that, if all goes well, could be ready for volume production by 2003.
The CCV: Will This Change the Way Vehicles Are Manufactured
Chrysler Corp. is undertaking, in cooperation with a group of suppliers, a project to determine the feasibility of producing low-cost, thermoplastic vehicles for Third World markets. What they are learning may have big effects on the way conventional cars are produced everywhere.
Safe, Strong & Green for up! Seatbelt System
Ratchet wheel of seatbelt retractor system made from a low-emission, impact-resistant thermoplastic from Ticona.
Plastics Under the Hood
Using plastics under the hood in place of metals is something that’s been underway for the past 20 years. And the transitions continue.
Gary S. Vasilash
Editor-in-Chief, Automotive Design & Production
BamBoo: Whimsical Concept with Hard-core Engineering
The Rinspeed Inc. (rinspeed.eu/en/) BamBoo concept car—an electric vehicle powered by a 54-kW motor from the Fräger Group (fraeger-gruppe.de) that’s claimed to move the 1,090-kg vehicle to a top speed of 120 km/h—does contain small amounts of bamboo (a thread used on the interior is made with it). But by in large, it is made out of a variety of other materials, such as steel for the chassis and composites for the body and aluminum for the wheels.
One of the suppliers is Ticona (ticona.com), which provided a variety of materials to Rinspeed for the car.
