Intense competition and price pressure have led to a shake-out in the automotive supply market. The surviving Tier 1 suppliers have a global presence and an increasingly strong buying power, as consultants Robert Eller Associates, Inc (REA, Akron, OH 44333-8324 USA; www.robertellerassoc.com) noted in a presentation “An Automotive World Without Elastomers?” at the annual meeting of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP, www.iisrp.com) in Naples, Italy. As they point out, with earnings eroding at a critical rate, producers of automotive components are seeking to reduce costs by switching to simpler processes and creating higher added value through weight reduction and use of more effective materials. Reflecting the growing importance of recycling, many players are demanding the use of only one polymer or material for instrument panels and car sub-modules. • Details on the REA studies, with charts: PIE-No. 45723.

Professor Peter Eyerer and his team at the Polymer Evaluation Institute (IKP) at Germany´s Stuttgart University (www.ikp.uni-stuttgart.de; www.ict.fhg.de; www.eyerer-peter.de) for many years have been developing production processes for complex plastic parts for automotive interiors and other applications. The IKP team claims to have introduced revolutionary lightweight systems, which include a middle layer based on a glass fibre-reinforced polypropylene matrix. Eyerer is convinced that future instrument panels will be based on a single-polymer system and he believes PP would be particularly well suited. Foaming would take place through activation or heating of the blowing agent with microwave energy.

Compounder A. Schulman (Akron, Ohio / USA; www.aschulman.com) is also betting on “mono-material” schemes for an all-polyolefin interior, so that auto recyclers could easily separate out large pieces of one family of resins for recycling. In May the company received approval from General Motors for its “Invision” soft-touch polyolefin materials with durometer hardness ranging from 60 to 75 Shore A. Schulman is touting this high-performance alternative to PVC for a wide variety of car interior components. It says these novel products would address market demand for PVC-free parts that are soft and leather-like in texture without sacrificing scratch resistance, weatherability, colourability and moisture resistance. Needless to say, this approach poses a threat to polyurethane.

If the automated system developed by Recovery Plastics International LLC (RPI, Salt Lake City, Utah / USA; www.plastics.com/trade/rs19883.html) under the leadership of DaimlerChrysler performs as well on industrial scale as it has in tests, the transport industry will be able to separate usable material from the shredded remains of cars and trucks. This would eliminate the need to design for ease of recycling. With the carmaker´s support, RPI has developed a proprietary process (www.sae.org/automag/features/recovery/pag5.htm; www.uscar.org/techno/flotation.htm) that would not only divide plastics from other materials, but, with the help of special additives, would also separate the various plastics able to react with specific compounds. Two years ago, DaimlerChrysler successfully started up a pilot plant study using RPI´s process on test vehicles containing among other PU foam, recycled PP and ABS.