Plastic parts offer light fantastic improvements

Weight saving through plastic components is going to be more important in vehicles over the next four years.

Driven by increasingly stringent government regulations to meet fuel efficiency standards and reduce carbon emissions, by 2020, the average car will incorporate nearly 350 kilograms of plastics, up from 200 kilograms in 2014, according to chemical researchers at IHS Markit, a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

In the U.S., for example, the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards mandate that carmakers' passenger vehicle fleets average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, and according to estimates from IHS Markit, fuel economy must be improved by approximately 50 percent across the passenger vehicle fleet.

Increasingly, automakers are employing newer-generation plastics and plastics composites to meet those newer efficiency standards, according to IHS Markit.

For the most part, mainstream automakers are initially employing traditional metalworking approaches to weight reduction, as these offer a cost-effective application of known competencies, secure supply chains and most importantly, existing capital equipment.

However, said IHS Markit, automakers are increasingly employing more novel approaches, such as adopting more plastics and next-generation composites into automotive design, particularly for larger vehicle applications.

"While metal and metal alloys are still critical to automotive design, automakers are finding innovative ways to leverage plastics and composites into their designs to help reduce vehicle weight and improve efficiency," said Casey Selecman, senior manager of automotive advisory services at IHS Markit.

"As efficiency and carbon reduction regulations increase globally, we at IHS Markit expect the use of plastics will only increase as the materials improve and production costs are reduced."

According to the automotive researchers at IHS Markit, cars represent a fast-growing market for the chemicals industry, with global car production expected to rise in the coming years, to more than 110 million units in 2025, up from an estimated 88.7 million in 2015. Much of the growth will come from the fast-expanding Chinese market.

The plastics consumed for automotive manufacturing are often compounded with fiberglass and additives to improve mechanical properties and stability.

The use of carbon fibers and polymer matrix composites enable car-body weight-reductions of an estimated 25 percent to 70 percent, and chemical analysts at IHS Markit expect the market for carbon fiber in automotive manufacturing to nearly double in the next few years.

Selecman said that, even with all the recent press regarding the latest applications of light-weighting technologies, "there is still a huge opportunity for automotive light-weighting on the horizon-literally tons of weight yet to be removed from vehicle designs using material substitutions such as innovative plastics composites and carbon fiber technologies. Closures, which are doors, lift-gates and hoods, are the easiest options to significantly reduce vehicle weight, and at IHS Markit, we see significant opportunities for those as well as non-critical structures such as seats, instrument panels, and under the hood for engine cradles, pans, covers, and so on."

The most obvious recent example of a major light-weighting success, he said, is from Ford, which removed approximately 700 pounds in weight from the F-150 in the last redesign, a feat, Selecman said, that was achieved largely through a material substitution in the body and bed.