[Zhen Shun Plastics] Leading the Lightweight Era: Innovative Applications of PC Modified Materials in Automotive Weight Reduction Solutions
Release time:
2024-03-06 11:50
Source:
Network
Polycarbonate (PC) is a class of thermoplastic engineering plastics with excellent overall performance. It boasts high impact strength and good transparency, and is widely used in fields such as automotive, construction materials, packaging, and lighting.
In the automotive sector, PCs are primarily used in automotive lighting systems and interior and exterior trim components, and they also find applications in intelligent central control systems.
I. PC Application in Automotive Windows
Optically characterized PC material With its unique characteristics—such as exceptional impact resistance, weather resistance, lightweight construction, and high strength—it continues to challenge the dominance of traditional automotive window glass.
Compared to traditional automotive inorganic glass, PC materials are lighter, more versatile in design, and exhibit higher toughness. Through polycarbonate modification technology, these materials can be used in applications such as rear triangular windows, rear windshields, laminated sunroofs, and panoramic sunroofs.
II. PC Applications in Automotive Interior and Exterior Trim
Modified polycarbonate (modified PC) is widely used in automotive applications—particularly for interior and exterior trim—thanks to its excellent heat resistance, impact resistance, rigidity, and good processability.
1. Dashboard
Excessive surface gloss on dashboards can cause glare and reflections on the windshield, seriously compromising driving safety. Automotive interior components typically made from low-gloss PC plastics and their alloys often still exhibit excessively high surface gloss, necessitating the use of coating or printing processes to reduce the surface gloss level.
2. Door panel trim
The main components—such as door trim strips, interior door handles, and switch control panels—are predominantly made from PC/ABS, electroplated PC/ABS, and heat-resistant ABS. Among these materials, PC/ABS resin is the fastest-growing and most widely used material for in-vehicle door handles. Currently, the YMP5000AM material remains the mainstream choice for door handle applications in China.
3. Exterior rearview mirror
The mirror housing primarily consists of components such as the shell, mirror surface, and fixed cover plate. Since rearview mirrors are mounted on the exterior of vehicles, the materials used for these mirrors must meet requirements related to temperature, humidity, strength, impact resistance, and flexural performance. Moreover, the materials should exhibit excellent aging resistance, corrosion resistance, and strong injection-molding and paint-coating properties. Currently, heat-resistant materials such as ABS, PC/ABS, ASA, and PBT+GF are commonly employed.
4. Luggage rack
Car luggage racks need to have sufficient load-bearing capacity and adequate fatigue strength. Currently, materials commonly used include PC/PBT, PC/ASA, PC/ABS, ASA, and others.
5. Car headlights
PC material boasts advantages such as transparency, excellent impact resistance, superior mechanical and electrical insulation properties, a wide operating temperature range, high dimensional stability, and outstanding creep resistance, making it suitable for use in automotive headlights.
Polycarbonate is primarily used in the lenses and external light-distribution lenses of headlights and fog lights. Leveraging polycarbonate’s easy molding and processing characteristics, the headlight assembly—including the head, connecting brackets, and body—can all be molded integrally within the lens itself. This design offers great flexibility and effectively overcomes the technical challenges inherent in traditional glass-headlight manufacturing processes.
6. Bumper
Bumpers made from PC-based materials not only exhibit high strength and rigidity but are also weldable. For example, the bumper of the Peugeot 405 sedan is manufactured using PC-based materials via reaction injection molding.
3. PC is used for applications such as the housings of charging piles.
In addition to applications in automotive lighting, windows, and interior and exterior trim, polycarbonate is also widely used in new-energy vehicles for battery protection housings and charging station enclosures.
1. Battery protective case
Plastic materials for module housings are trending toward lighter weights and integrated designs, which necessitates materials with superior mechanical properties as well as enhanced formability for producing thin-walled components. PC/ABS material is precisely one of the preferred choices for module housing plastics; its heat resistance and weatherability meet the performance requirements for new-energy vehicle module housings.
2. New energy vehicle charging piles
Charging stations are basically located outdoors and are exposed to wind, sunlight, rain, and other elements. Therefore, the engineering plastics used in charging stations must meet stringent requirements, including excellent mechanical properties, environmentally friendly flame retardancy, long-term weather resistance, good electrical insulation, resistance to both high- and low-temperature shocks, and superior colorability. PC/ABS, PC/ASA, and PC/PBT, after flame-retardant modification, can meet the selection requirements for charging station housings and gun housings.
For example, LG’s YGN5001RFZ perfectly meets the requirements for charging stations for new-energy vehicles. It boasts balanced physical and mechanical properties, excellent weather resistance, outstanding performance across a wide temperature range (-40℃ to 60℃), and superior processing characteristics, making it suitable for formulating a variety of colors.
As the energy crisis intensifies, vehicle lightweighting has become a global development trend. To meet the ever-changing demands of the automotive industry, material combinations will play a crucial role. Through innovative research on the application of polycarbonate in the automotive sector, future vehicles will be not only more aesthetically pleasing but also smarter and more intelligent.
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About Zhen Shun Zhen Shun Plastics has become an authorized Tier-1 distributor for LG Chem, specializing in the sale of LG Chem’s full range of plastic products: (1) Modified engineering plastics, including modified PC, PC/ABS, PP, PBT, PBT/ABS, ABS+GF, PA6/66, light-diffusing PC, PPO, PPS, POM, TPEE, etc., covering various grades and specifications such as flame-retardant, glass-fiber reinforced, long-glass-fiber reinforced, and mineral-filled (TALC); (2) General-purpose plastics, including ABS (flame-retardant, transparent, high-gloss, electroplated, scratch-resistant, heat-resistant, high-impact, high-flow, etc.), PMMA, ASA, SAN, PP, PE, PS; (3) Post-consumer recycled (PCR) environmentally friendly materials, including PCR-ABS, PCR-PC, PCR-PC/ABS, PCR-PP; (4) Modified additives, including impact modifier MBS and toughening agents, etc. Mobile/WeChat: 139 2640 0876. We welcome calls and emails for inquiries and discussions. 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