Specialty chemicals company LANXESS with its advanced structural insert (bodyinsert) technology won the “Material Innovation Award” in the technical group of the “2016 China Automobile and Parts Industry Development Innovation Award”. The award ceremony was held in Shanghai recently, and this is the third consecutive year that LANXESS has won the award.
LANXESS is committed to creating products that support lightweight applications—especially high-tech plastics and composite materials, focusing on product innovation in the field of high-tech plastics and composite materials, helping customers develop lightweight solutions to cope with the growing Challenges posed by motorization. The LANXESS High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit has comprehensive expertise in all phases of modern automotive component development, offering products and services covering material development, computer-aided engineering, concept development, component testing, machining and more.
The award-winning “body insert” technology is an injection molding insert made of glass fiber reinforced PA6 by LANXESS. Compared with traditional metal auto parts, this technology can greatly reduce the weight of the car, and at the same time Enhanced passenger protection. Metals such as steel and aluminum offer high strength and stiffness, while high-tech plastics such as glass-fiber-reinforced nylon improve component properties and reduce wall thickness.
It is understood that compared with 100% steel parts, the “structural insert” (bodyinsert) technology has three main advantages: it can reduce the weight by 50%; the high degree of functional integration in the injection molding process reduces the process steps quantity, thereby reducing costs by up to 40%; higher precision, quality and strength. According to Lanxess technicians, the spare tire groove made of 60% glass fiber reinforced plastic can be directly adhered to the body frame, which can not only store spare tires and vehicle tools, but also increase the rigidity of the rear of the vehicle. In addition, the roof frame using plastic/metal composite technology is 30% lighter than steel components, but the cost is the same; the front end using plastic/metal composite technology is 10-40% lighter than the all-metal front end. At present, LANXESS’ “body insert” technology has been successfully applied to many domestic and foreign auto parts.
It is understood that the “2016 China Automobile and Parts Industry Development Innovation Award” awards ceremony aims to commend the technological progress in the field of China’s auto industry. “2016 China Automobile and Parts Industry Development Innovation Award” is divided into “Enterprise Group”, “Technology Group” and “Aftermarket Group”.