SAE highlights new automotive plastics materials and technology.

What drives current automotive plastics R&D? Recycling may have a role, but new materials and processing technologies will have more immediate impact.

Among the numerous materials developments and new processing techniques that came to light last month at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International Congress and Exposition in Detroit, four overall themes stood out.

First, while nearly everyone at the show was talking about a recycling strategy and an "environmental awareness" plan, the hard reality is that recycling of plastic automotive parts remains mainly theoretical. At least that's true on this side of the Atlantic. In Europe, the progress is rapid and substantial. But in North America, too much is still unknown about the technical and economic ramifications of automotive plastics recycling, and both a recycling infrastructure and industry standards have yet to be developed. Equally uncertain are the role and responsibility of processors in the recycling equation. Nonetheless, the SAE conference gave testimony to active R&D on innovative methods of reclaiming plastic car parts.

Second, "next-generation" processing approaches seem to be approaching commercial fruition. In contrast to the vague hints of the past, industry executives now openly discuss these technologies, often in the context of specific future applications. These new concepts include blow molded instrument panels, plastic/metal hybrid structural components and multilayer reflective sheet for lighting applications.

Third, development of injection molded thermoplastic body panels, which has long been a tantalizing possibility, remains stalled with only limited applications. Despite the widely touted benefits of recyclability, lower tooling costs, part design and processing advantages, TP body panels remain a tough sell to car builders. At least one of the Big Three indicates that thermoset technology, often dismissed in recent years as a "mature" area and one vulnerable to recycling difficulties, is seeing a renaissance in body-panel applications at the expense of thermoplastics.

Fourth, there was much less discussion of plastics as "metal replacements" at this year's show. Plastics are firmly entrenched in virtually all areas of automotive design. The current tactic is optimizing or replacing existing plastic applications with new, enhanced plastic materials or processing concepts. Today, a major focus for plastics processing, design and material technology is delivering small, highly engineered precision components for the demanding applications and severe environments of engines, transmission and fuel systems.