Borealis demonstrates award-winning innovations to automotive industry

Borealis will demonstrate the award-winning benefits of its polypropylene (PP) solutions to key decision makers in the automotive industry at the VDI "Plastics in Automotive Engineering" International Conference from March 5 to 6, 2008 in Mannheim, Germany.

Visitors can experience Borealis' development of interior and exterior automotive parts that meet the manufacturing, performance, weight-saving and fuel-reduction challenges facing the industry.

The result of close co-operation between Borealis, Tier One suppliers and automotive OEMs, Borealis will showcase single-material solutions and differentiation opportunities based on its Daplen thermoplastic olefin (TPO), Nepol long glass fibre and XMOD short glass fibre modified compounds. These include:

Step change innovation: a 100% plastic module solution to replace the use of metal for the rear seat carrier on a future BMW Series. Granted the "2007 Grand Innovation Award (Body Interior)" by the SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers), the use of Borealis' pioneering XMOD GD302 HP in a sandwich structure with Expanded Polypropylene contributes to part weight reduction and a streamlined manufacturing process by reducing the total number of parts. This lowers the overall car weight, thereby reducing CO2 emission and fuel consumption.

Innovative market differentiation and weight-reduction benefits for the "2007 Car of the Year" FIAT 500. A one-material solution for the Fiat 500 dashboard using Daplen EE168Al offers scratch resistance safety and manufacturing improvements through an good impact/stiffness ratio, and lower weight without compromising on performance.

Smart fortwo: the first commercialised car to have full body panels manufactured from PP. Borealis developed Daplen ED230HP to meet the cost-effective production targets and aesthetic, safety and environmental requirements of the latest Smart vehicle. The injection molded PP exterior body panels provide a 15% reduction in overall vehicle weight. They also increase quality perception through more narrow gap tolerance between parts and a good impact/stiffness ratio. It was a joint winner of the SPE's 2007 Body Exterior Automotive Award.