June 2008

If plastic components in a vehicle's cockpit are to be a hit these days, they must incorporate light, friendly colors and good tactile properties. On top of that, plastics must be UV resistant and tough enough to handle minor scratches or encounters with substances like suntan lotion without suffering permanent damage. Above all, they must support cost-efficient and safe processing. Application engineers at Bayer MaterialScience AG have now developed and tested a production-ready process for Desmopan® films known as film insert molding. The new technology combines the recognized surface quality of Desmopan® – used successfully in slush skins for quality instrument panels for example – with the reliability and effectiveness of the injection molding process. Substrate materials include both high-end and low-cost thermoplastics such as Bayblend® or polypropylene.

"Plastics have been an integral part of automotive interiors for a long time now," says Jürgen Hättig, a thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) specialist at Bayer MaterialScience. "The reasons include safety aspects and, of course, the high degree of design freedom they offer users. Nevertheless, plastics in cars shouldn't look cheap." The automotive industry accordingly puts considerable effort into enhancing plastics, for example by treating them with soft-touch coatings. "But coatings like these are very complex to apply and therefore expensive," explains Hättig. "We were looking for a way to provide plastic components with good-looking surfaces without the time- and cost-intensive coating step." 


Find more information at www.bayermaterialscience.com