Automakers are driven to design lightweight cars that will meet increasing fuel efficiency requirements – 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 – and satisfy consumer appetite for high-quality vehicles. They’re finding that they can lose vehicle weight and gain styling with engineering thermoplastics and composite materials.
Adopting lightweight polymers and polyurethane composites to replace traditional materials such as glass and metal in exterior applications, including window glazing and body panel components, can help reduce vehicle mass while retaining strength. From load floors to roofs to chassis and interior applications, Bayer’s automotive material solutions can help automakers meet today’s and the future’s challenges.
Bruce Benda, vice president, Automotive Marketing, Bayer MaterialScience LLC, will highlight automotive challenges and solutions during his presentation “Lightweighting Trends and the Need for Innovative Solutions” at this year’s Plastics in Lightweight and Electric Vehicles North American Conference taking place Nov. 7-9 in Livonia, Mich.
“Automakers’ ‘Drive to 54.5’ is underway,” Benda said. “Their challenge to lose vehicle weight and keep it off is creating an ever-greater interest in exploring new materials and processes that deliver low cost, light weight and luxurious design. The benefits of engineering thermoplastics and polyurethane composites can help make it achievable.”
For instance, using Makrolon® polycarbonate to replace heavy glass can reduce a vehicle’s glazing mass by up to 50 percent, helping to cut fuel consumption. Additionally, strong and lightweight polyurethane composite structures utilized in load floors and roof modules have the potential to trim 20 – 30 pounds of weight in a finished vehicle.
Visit Bayer’s booth, #10, to learn about lightweight technologies and how Bayer can support both OEMs and tiers.
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