Sabic Innovative Plastics and Sabic PP Automotive are introducing Sabic’s expansive, world-class portfolio of lightweight, high-performance thermoplastic composites for automotive applications.

These reinforced materials range from LNP Thermocomp and LNP Verton specialty compounds for demanding interior and underhood applications, to the global introduction of Sabic Stamax resins for door modules and instrument panel carriers, to the newly introduced Azdel Ixis 157 composite for vehicle hoods and roofs.
Sabic’s broad portfolio of composites enables the use of technologies such as in-mould decoration for special effects, and heat and cool moulding for improved surface finish. The company is a global leader in thermoplastic composites with strong insight into the future needs of the automotive industry.
“High-performance composites, such as our LNP specialty compounds and Sabic Stamax resins, are increasingly in demand by automotive designers and OEMs for replacement of steel to reduce costs and weight, increase design freedom, simplify recycling and enhance safety,” said Greg Adams, vice president, Sabic Innovative Plastics, Automotive.
 “But the diversity of automotive components calls for an equally broad and deep choice of composites – and that is where Sabic Innovative Plastics can help. We have developed a solid portfolio of composites offering many different base resins and loadings to meet the specific requirements of applications from large, horizontal body panels to instrument panels.”
One addition to Sabic Innovative Plastics’ LNP composites offering is a new bio-based material. The company is developing the use of natural, sustainable fibres from the curauá plant and wood shavings for reinforcement. These strong but lightweight fibres can reduce overall composite weight compared with glass fibres while improving recyclability.
“Today, Sabic’s broad offering of thermoplastic composites is represented for the first time on a global basis,” said Mark Neville, business unit director of Sabic PP Automotive. “The automotive industry is an extremely important market for Sabic as evidenced by our longstanding collaboration with many OEMs. The introduction of Sabic Stamax long-glass fibre materials to our global customers will help them by providing lightweight solutions for improved fuel economy. Together with the existing portfolio of products from Sabic Innovative Plastics and Ixis technologies from Azdel, Sabic is helping manufacturers comply with environmental and safety legislation and meet demand for better fuel performance.”

Sabic Stamax
“The Sabic Stamx resin portfolio has enjoyed great success in Europe, and now customers and OEMs around the world are increasingly asking us to make these materials available to them worldwide,” said Adams. “Our planned global expansion of Sabic Stamax production supports our strategy of delivering innovative material solutions to help automakers deliver more environmentally responsible vehicles without compromising on design freedom.”
To support the global distribution of Sabic Stamax resin, the company is making plans to expand its production of the material in North America in 2009, and in Asia/Pacific from 2010. Sabic’s commitment to meeting capacity needs, coupled with world-class application development expertise in the Sabic Innovative Plastics and Sabic PP Automotive businesses, enables the companies to provide automotive customers with innovative modular solutions and outstanding technical support.
Sabic Stamax LGF PP resins are enabling automakers to advance from traditional multi-part steel doors, front-end systems and instrument panel carriers to single modules. These resins offer expanded design flexibility for part consolidation as well as key performance properties, including high stiffness, dimensional stability, high flow and good crash behavior. In addition the flow characteristics of the resins allow for thinner wall instrument panel carriers compared to traditional materials like modified styrene-co-maleic anhydride (SMA) and polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS). Thin wall moulding provides for both cost and weight advantages to the OEM. As a result, designers can create single modules to replace complex assemblies, thus streamlining production and reducing system costs. Further, Sabic lightweight PP LGF resin drives weight-out vs steel, helping to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ixis 157: “critical” advantages
The Ixis 157 composite is the first product launched using high-performance thermoplastic composite (HPPC) technology – which won the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Technology award – and provides critical advantages over traditional materials, starting with a 50 per cent weight reduction compared to steel. By adopting Ixis thermoplastic composites, automakers can design cost-effective, lightweight and aerodynamic body panels that will help drive the success of fuel-efficient future models.
“Together with Azdel, we have made tremendous strides with Ixis composites, including the commercialisation of our first grade aimed at off-line painting and the excellent progress toward an online paintable product,” said Adams. “We’ve leveraged our resources around the globe to develop the Ixis materials that have been featured on two of the most successful ‘green’ concept vehicles in the world: the Chevrolet Volt and the Hyundai QarmaQ. Our investment in these new technologies enables us to continue to provide innovative solutions to address the automotive industry’s environmental, performance and cost challenges.”
The Ixis composite is composed of a random glass fibre reinforced core with glass content (by weight) of approximately 50 per cent, together with a 0º/90º skins of continuous unidirectional fibre-reinforced thermoplastic. The skin material enables a Class A paint finish and dimensional stability, while the core material aids processing and reduces overall material costs.