• SABIC is showcasing its specialty material solutions for automotive innovation and safety at PIAE 2024.
• Applications on display include wheel inserts for aerodynamics, a front grille with paint-free color, a rearview mirror with EMI shielding for integrated ADAS radar, a service flap for EV charging ports and insulation film for EV battery modules.
• SABIC’s materials enable longer useful life of automotive parts, incorporating recycled content and avoiding volatile emissions from coating application.

SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, is highlighting here at the 2024 Plastics in Automotive Engineering (PIAE) congress a selection of specialty material solutions that can enhance automotive innovation and safety. The parts and samples at SABIC’s exhibit (Stand #11) attest to the company’s continuing research, development and investment to promote the benefits of advanced thermoplastics. This strategy encompasses recycled and upcycled content for circularity, molded-in color for volatile emissions reduction, durability for longer useful life, and enhancement of driver assistance systems and electric vehicle battery packs.

“Improving automotive efficiency and safety involves many different aspects of a vehicle’s design, production, and operation,” said Maureen MacDonald-Stein, director, Portfolio Strategy & Marketing, SABIC Polymers, Specialties business. “Our broad and growing array of specialty resins, compounds and copolymers offers customers multiple options for addressing specific challenges related to these two areas. But our solutions also deliver additional benefits, including potential system cost savings and more-efficient processing compared to traditional materials. As regulatory requirements and megatrends like electrification and environmental protection accelerate the pace of change, SABIC continues to diversify and add value to our portfolio.”  

Solutions for Sustainability

Aerodynamics plays a role in extending range in electric vehicles (EVs) and reducing fuel consumption in internal combustion vehicles. Wheel inserts can improve aerodynamics by reducing drag, while adding visual excitement and differentiation to a vehicle’s design. At its exhibit, SABIC is displaying wheel inserts molded from NORYL? GTX resin, a high-heat, impact-resistant material that can be painted to enhance aesthetics and also improve the durability of the application . It also features very low specific gravity for weight-out and optimized moment of inertia.

Weatherable SLX

SABIC helps customers achieve sustainability goals and lower system costs with paint-free LNP? ELCRES SLX resins. These resins help manufacturers avoid volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with a molded in color, high gloss and weatherable solution featured in various automotive exterior applications. Beyond our market leading SLX2271T and 2291T resins, SABIC continues to innovate with solutions that help extend useful life with advancements in scratch resistance, and incorporate recycled content derived by renewable or post-consumer recycled content.

SABIC’s LNP? ELCRES? SLX1271SR resin is another material in this family that provides excellent paint-free aesthetics and weatherability. This product won the 2024 Gold Edison Award in the Materials Science/Advanced Materials category. Besides avoiding volatile emissions from painting, the molded-in color capability of this resin can reduce system costs and accelerate throughput.

SABIC is showcasing an illuminated front grille for an EV that can withstand harsh weather, automotive fluids and impact without the need for hard coating. This is another example of reduction of VOCs from paint and coatings to protect air quality and health. This part is molded from LNP? SLX1271D copolymer resin, which provides a more sustainable alternative to hard-coated polymer substrates weathers at the similiar rate as painted components, maintaining its desirable aesthetics for 10 years or more. One reason is that the resin forms a self-protecting layer that absorbs UV light on a continuous basis to help retain color and gloss. It also offers automotive OEMs a cost-effective route to designing and producing intricate, illuminated, instantly recognizable signature features as part of their exterior branding strategy.

To amplify the sustainability benefits of EVs, SABIC has developed a service flap assembly for charging ports that features new NORYL GTX? LMX310 resin. This conductive grade with very low moisture absorption can reduce global warming potential (GWP) by 30 percent compared to incumbent conductive polyamide-based materials.

Solutions for Safety

At PIAE, SABIC is displaying an interior rearview mirror with an integrated driver and passenger monitoring system for improved safety. To provide electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, the mirror housing is molded from new LNP? FARADEX?  9X23246 compound, a blend of PC and acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate (ASA) formulated with electrically conductive stainless steel fibers. This application features a custom molded-in dark gray color.

LNP THERMOCOMP? compounds, which won the 2024 Silver Edison Award in the Materials Science/Advanced Materials category, are another family of LNP materials that can be used in automotive safety systems. They offer highly stable and broad dielectric properties for satellite navigation and communication antennas, helping to advance self-driving technology.

Battery safety is a crucial factor in consumer adoption of EVs. SABIC’s NORYL? NHP8000VT3 resin is well suited for insulation film used in EV battery modules to help protect against short circuits and fire propagation. It achieves the highest comparative tracking index performance level category (CTI PLC0) and meets the UL94 V0 standard at 0.25 mm. Samples of insulation film are on display at the SABIC booth.

PIAE 2024 is being held in Mannheim, Germany, from June 18-20.

New conductive NORYL? GTX? LMX310 resin offers inline paintability for perfect color consistency with adjacent body parts and meets more stringent dimension control requirements in a wider temperature and humidity range for components such as large EV service flaps.