SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Automotive Business Offers Dynamic Market Structure Geared Toward Meeting Evolving Industry Needs

Exterior Body & Glazing

For automotive manufacturers seeking to differentiate themselves with advanced technologies for automotive exteriors, SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Automotive business offers a variety of innovative solutions to reduce weight, free designers from traditional constraints, and minimize capital investment.

By adopting Lexan* GLX polycarbonate resins combined with Exatec** defroster, printing, antenna and coating technologies for innovative new glazing designs, OEMs are finding ways to reduce weight and cost while enhancing the “open-air” experience for drivers and passengers. Larger glazed areas and wrap-around designs take glazing to a new level, integrating various functions such as lenses, antennas, and aerodynamics into the glazed areas, while offering improved safety due to the outstanding impact resistance of Lexan resin. SABIC Innovative Plastics has turned imagination into reality with Lexan resin glazing that can reduce costs for integrated door windows and quarter window designs in complex shapes that traditional flat glass cannot deliver. Lexan resin glazing can offer weight savings of up to 50 percent versus glass and metal systems, while helping to lower the center of gravity for improved vehicle dynamics.

SABIC Innovative Plastics products for injection-molded vertical body panels also give customized painting options through all three traditional paint methods. Off-line solutions include paintable – or molded-in-color – Xenoy iQ* resin panels. On-line and in-line painted body panels can also be manufactured from Noryl GTX* resins. The latest third generation materials are now available, offering significant improvements in dimensional stability with lower CTE and improved stiffness, while retaining high-temperature and conductive properties that make Noryl GTX the material of choice for on-line painted lightweight body panels.

For exterior trim panels and panoramic roof surrounds, SABIC is helping drive cost out by eliminating the need for secondary paint operations with “no-paint” solutions. Advanced Lexan SLX film provides automakers with a ‘paint-free’ option that can deliver a Class A surface finish with deep gloss consumer appeal. Furthermore, the film has the ability to withstand prolonged exposure to UV rays with minimal fading, and offers greater scratch and chemical resistance when compared to alternative films.

Horizontal body panels made from recyclable thermoplastics will soon be a reality, with IXIS™ high performance thermoplastic composite materials under development by SABIC Innovative Plastics and AZDEL Inc. This new family of reinforced composite sandwich materials offer high stiffness and aluminum-like CTE for outstanding dimensional stability.

Exterior Components, Trim & Accessories

From bumper to bumper, SABIC Innovative Plastics offers a wide variety of high performance engineering thermoplastics and composites for exterior and interior component applications. Geloy* XTW resin, for example, is a game-changing material that may deliver three- to five-times better color and gloss retention than conventional acrylic-styrene-acrylonitriles (ASAs), and comes in a spectrum of colors. More than additives, this revolutionary resin uses new polymer building blocks to dramatically improve weatherability in exterior applications. While molded-in color eliminates paint and hard coat, automakers can also achieve blacks that are deeper and darker when compared to ASAs, whites that are brighter and cleaner, along with an excellent depth of image that will be noticed and appreciated by auto consumers.

SABIC Innovative Plastics’ technologies have helped fuel the shift from metal tank flaps to single-piece, plastics fuel filler doors by eliminating secondary sanding operations, enabling primerless painting, and reducing costs. Specifically, Noryl GTX resin product line includes both standard and conductive resins, offering options for primerless painting. Noryl GTX resins also exhibit high resistance to chemicals, impact, and wear, and offer increased design flexibility.

The Cycoloy resin chrome plateable portfolio is an amorphous family of PC/ABS resin blends that are excellent candidates for chrome plated applications such as exterior trim, interior trim, running boards, wheel covers, roof racks, and mirror housings, that require stiffness, impact, and processability. Cycoloy plating resins can provide high surface quality, cycle time reduction, reduced plate out, and high stiffness. These materials also provide improved chrome adhesion greatly reducing expensive chrome plated part scrap.

The Visualfx* resin solutions offers OEMs and molders reduction of total systems costs without compromising styling by eliminating metallic paints in exterior and interior trim. Visualfx resin is SABIC Innovative Plastics’ premium resin formulated with a variety of effects (i.e. luminescent, diffusion, and many more) inherent in the pellet to create colorful and exceptionally rich looking parts. Visualfx resins help designers to explore new boundaries without costly secondary paint and coating operations.

Design Innovation and Technology Demonstration

In addition to advancing its own technology, SABIC Innovative Plastics is also committed to advancing design innovation for its automotive customers. Toward this end, the company provides outstanding design support, application development, technical support, and customer service to OEMs and top tier suppliers around the globe. The active role SABIC Innovative Plastics plays in customers’ product development cycles continues to fuel emerging automotive needs relating to vehicle aesthetics, efficiency, and performance.

SABIC Innovative Plastics uses traditional engineering tools, as well as state-of-the-art structural and mold filling analyses, predictive modeling and prototyping, and thinking-outside-the-box creativity. In conjunction with its growing basket of advanced materials, SABIC Innovative Plastics aims to deliver system solutions that add customer and consumer value by making vehicles safer, more cost efficient and more effectively differentiated. SABIC Innovative Plastics supports OEMs and Tier suppliers in all areas of application development from trend analysis and teardown, and product conceptualization through to commercialization.

Lighting

The pristine, jewel-like appearance of today's headlamps are increasingly desired in larger sizes, with augmented lighting functions like AFS and curve lighting with increasing thermal demands compared to just a few years ago. SABIC Innovative Plastics meets the demanding material requirements for illuminating both roadways and pedestrians at high speeds and in inclement weather while providing improved options for aesthetically pleasing designs. Heat resistance, optical clarity, dimensional stability, and beautiful molded appearance are all hallmarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics’ engineering plastics that enable headlamp styling and performance.

Automotive lighting components made from SABIC Innovative Plastics’ resins have proven to be tough, stylish, and durable against the demanding high heat requirements of today’s headlamps and fog lamps. Millions of vehicles worldwide already rely on standard Lexan resin and Ultem* resin grades to help provide high impact resistance, heat resistance and clarity in headlight lenses, reflectors, and bezels. Lexan XHT resins present an improvement in the balance of flow and heat resistance previously available for high heat lenses and bezels that require direct metallization and high surface quality, while permitting faster cycle times and greater productivity.

Ultem XHT resin also delivers extraordinarily high modulus, plus outstanding heat resistance up to 230 C. Additionally, it offers exceptional dimensional stability, strength and durability, and presents opportunities for recycling. The lighting segment at SABIC Innovative Plastics continues to help light the way for the automotive industry of today and tomorrow.

Powertrain

Powertrain and chassis high performance components also provide benefits that may reduce cost, weight, integrate parts, and maintain high dimensional stability vs. metal.

Wire coating made with Flexible Noryl* resin meets the global automotive industry’s need for an ultra-thin high-performance wire/cable insulation that also meets the requirements for halogen-free parts. This unique technology helps meet international standards for recyclability – in contrast to cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) – allowing parts made with the new product to meet recycling and reuse requirements in Europe and Asia.

SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Valox* Super High Flow resins, a family of glass- and mineral-filled polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) materials are aimed at helping automakers and tiers achieve thinner, larger parts with greater detail at lower injection pressures without sacrificing performance. Traditional materials often cause short shots and rejects because the machine cannot deliver sufficient pressure for complete mold filling. The excellent flow characteristics of these grades – which achieved more than double the flow of existing PBT resins in spiral flow tests – make them excellent candidates for such parts as power distribution boxes, high pin density connectors, and HVAC vanes, whose significant length and thinness can challenge other materials.

With a wide applications base ranging from air intake systems, fuel systems, connectors, and engine covers to new flexible wire, SABIC Innovative Plastics offers a broad portfolio of engineering resins and composites designed to withstand automotive performance demands.

Structures, Interiors & Safety Systems

The experience of SABIC Innovative Plastics, Automotive in structures, interiors, and energy management is broad; encompassing new instrument panels, steering wheels, headliners, and energy absorption systems, which include injection-molded Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) and solutions to meet Pedestrian Impact Protection requirements across the globe.

With a new Instrument Panel program in the works, SABIC Innovative Plastics presents a stylish and safe solution with the seamless integrated airbag door instrument panel system made with Lexan EXL resin. Innovative design enables the seamless integration of the air bag door into the instrument panel, for outstanding aesthetics, while helping to contribute to safety by facilitating robust, fragment-free air bag deployment, even at –40 C.

Additionally, SABIC Innovative Plastics has developed energy absorbing countermeasures that meet US FMVSS, US IIHS, Europe and Pacific Pedestrian Phase I and II requirements. SABIC Innovative Plastics is also developing Global EA solutions with Xenoy iQ resins which are available for the OEM's that require a more environmentally progressive solution.

Energy management technology from the company was first used on the Ford Escort in 1984. This technology has since earned numerous awards from leading industry associations.

* Trademarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP BV.

** Trademark of Exatec, LLC

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