Trinseo (Berwyn, Pennsylvania / USA; www.trinseo.com) launched its portfolio of soft-touch plastics for automotive applications at German engineers association VDI's (Düsseldorf; www.vdi.de) “Plastics in Automotive Engineering” (PIAE) conference in Mannheim / Germany in March. Trinseo presented there the innovative thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) solutions.

The automotive industry’s demand for soft-touch plastics enabling premium aesthetics and haptics (touch interactions) is steadily increasing. Trinseo’s TPE materials provide what it says is an enhanced interior experience due to ecological, lightweight and energy-efficient materials. The portfolio includes soft-touch plastics with “exceptional” overmoulding adhesion to most common rigid plastics, including Trinseo’s “Magnum” ABS and “Pulse” PC/ABS.

Overmoulding allows for the creation of composite finished products in a single phase, thus eliminating the need for gluing or mechanical fixing steps. The company also said it has installed a “Specialised Overmolding Center” (SOC) for research at its manufacturing site in Mussolente / Italy. The SOC is equipped with laboratory equipment, measuring the adhesion between soft and rigid components in accordance with the VDI 2019 standard.

Trinseo has been an active member in the fulfilment of the VDI 2019 standard. It is a testing method that defines the bonding strength between a soft component and a rigid substrate.