A display of Daicel-Evonik's in-vehicle resin products: The company is working on applying PEEK based material, which has been used to reduce the weight of aircraft seat parts, for automobiles

  At the "Automotive Engineering Exposition Yokohama 2017 (sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc.)" held in May, 2017, the exhibition booths of material makers were filled with attendees. The makers introduced resin products and technologies for automobiles by function; including weight reduction, heat resistance, noise reduction, and environmental load reduction.

  Automakers are aggressively adopting composite materials and resin parts, especially for electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHV), where the weight of the vehicle body significantly affects range. This reflects increasing demand for electrification of automobiles and weight reduction for lower fuel consumption. As for the adoption of composite materials for structural parts and resinification of fuel piping parts, Japanese makers are following the lead of Western automakers.

  At this exhibition, there were many exhibits where it seemed non-Japanese material makers were aiming to appeal to Japanese OEMs and parts suppliers. Further weight reduction of the vehicle body can be realized by using carbon fiber composite materials that can be integrally molded, or adhesives that replace metal fasteners such as bolts and nuts. The makers were also displaying techniques and technologies to improve and reduce cost through means like parts reduction and shorter molding processes.

  This report will introduce unique resin related materials and products that use original molding technology with the cooperation of Mr. Takeo Yasuda, the Director of the Yasuda Polymer Research Institute.

Related reports: JSAE Automotive Engineering Exposition 2017
Leading resin material makers (Jun. 2017)
Advances in electric power steering (Jun. 2017)
Toyota exhibits newly developed powertrain (Jun. 2017)