Aliphatic TPU Wins Materials Category Award from SPE
12 November 1998
Aliphatic TPU Wins Materials Category Award from SPE
Chrysler Instrument Panels Feature Innovative TPU
from Textron Automotive Company and Bayer Corporation
DETROIT, Nov. 11 -- An aliphatic thermoplastic urethane (TPU)
developed by Textron Automotive Company -- Trim Division, manufactured by
Bayer Corporation and used by Chrysler Corporation in its Dodge Intrepid,
Chrysler Concorde and Chrysler LHS/Chrysler 300M models, has won the Materials
Category Award for 1998 from the Automotive Division of the Society of
Plastics Engineers.
The award was presented to Chrysler this evening at the SPE's 28th annual
awards dinner at the Detroit Westin Hotel. The award-winning material,
Texin(R) DP7-3014, is used to make instrument panel (IP) covers with an
invisible passenger-side airbag door. SPE presented the award for the new
Texin TPU in recognition of its environmental and performance advantages.
Seventy nominations in seven categories were narrowed to 27 finalists for
the 1998 awards program. Categories included Chassis, Body Interior,
Powertrain, Body Exterior, Process, Environment, and Materials.
Texin DP7-3014 is the result of initial research by Textron Automotive
Trim and several years of codevelopment work between Textron and Bayer. It
represents a new family of thermoplastics based on aliphatic chemistry.
The new material offers significant improvements:
-- Extended temperature range of the IP skin, from minus 40 degrees
Celsius to plus 99 degrees Celsius, to allow safer air bag
deployments;
-- Chlorine-free content and enhanced recyclability;
-- Increased durability of the IP skin, with improvements both in long-
term heat aging performance and solar energy exposure;
-- A 15 percent lower density over current PVC slush-molded compounds;
-- Reduced interior fogging;
-- Ability to be processed with existing cast-IP-skin equipment, and to
be compatible with conventional IP fabrication technologies.
Texin DP7-3014 offers design flexibility not otherwise available,
including allowing for a seamless passenger-side air bag covering. It
provides a luxurious, leather-like appearance and feel.
"We're able to offer a whole new range of possibilities to the auto
industry," said Keith Riha, Product Director for instrument panels for Textron
Automotive Trim.
"Making IP skins with Texin allows designers to incorporate undercuts,
returned edges and multiple grains using cast molding," Riha said. "On top of
that, Textron Automotive Trim developed a proprietary "mini-bead" process that
results in better molding overall."
Riha said consumers will benefit from automakers being able to offer more
style variety and improved aesthetics.
For more information on Texin DP7-3014, contact:
-- Textron Automotive Company -- Trim Division, 32201 North Avis
Drive, Madison Heights, Mich., 48071. Telephone: 248-616-5466.
-- Bayer Corporation, Polymers Marketing Communications Group, 100 Bayer
Road, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15205-9741. Telephone: 1-800-622-6004. Web
site: http://www.bayer.com/polymers-usa.
Bayer Corporation is a research-based company with major businesses
in health care and life sciences, chemicals and imaging technologies. The
company had 1997 sales of $9.3 billion and employs more than 26,000 people.
Bayer Corporation is investing $9 billion in capital expenditures and research
and development from 1995 through the year 2000. 1998 capital investment and
R&D expenditures are projected to total $1.7 billion. Bayer Corporation, with
headquarters in Pittsburgh, is a member of the worldwide Bayer Group, a
$32 billion chemical and pharmaceutical company based in Leverkusen, Germany.