Solvay bags SPE process innovation award for BMW Hood
September 23, 2016 - Belgium
Solvay, a leader in automotive lightweight solutions, has bagged the 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Process innovation award for the most innovative composite part, for the BMW M4 GTS Hood made from Solvay’s materials and processes, with C-Con, tooling and system leading supplier, and Läpple, supplier of press parts and bodyshell components.
The hood was pressed using Solvay’s new rapid cure thermoset resin system MTRTM 760 which offered 40 per cent weight reduction over traditional materials. The significant weight reduction combined with successful head impact crash tests and functional tests, Class-A finish and the ability to use existing metal stamping assets for composite production made MTRTM 760 the ideal material for the application.
The material properties enabled a manufacturing process that can produce complex 3D shapes in a cost efficient way.
C-Con and Läpple worked closely with Solvay and reached automated serial production only 9 months after the start of the project, which is a testament to the great collaboration between the project partners.
Gerald Perrin, Solvay Composite Materials global automotive director said, “We are honoured to receive this innovation awards from SPE for an application we are very proud of. At Solvay we are committed to working with the OEMs and their composites part manufacturers to develop materials and processes to enable the volume manufacture of composite structures for serial automotive.” (GK)
The hood was pressed using Solvay’s new rapid cure thermoset resin system MTRTM 760 which offered 40 per cent weight reduction over traditional materials. The significant weight reduction combined with successful head impact crash tests and functional tests, Class-A finish and the ability to use existing metal stamping assets for composite production made MTRTM 760 the ideal material for the application.
The material properties enabled a manufacturing process that can produce complex 3D shapes in a cost efficient way.
C-Con and Läpple worked closely with Solvay and reached automated serial production only 9 months after the start of the project, which is a testament to the great collaboration between the project partners.
Gerald Perrin, Solvay Composite Materials global automotive director said, “We are honoured to receive this innovation awards from SPE for an application we are very proud of. At Solvay we are committed to working with the OEMs and their composites part manufacturers to develop materials and processes to enable the volume manufacture of composite structures for serial automotive.” (GK)