Lightweight Seat Pan

In this seat pan, stamped steel is replaced by thermoplastic composite, which combines both discontinuous and continuous fiberglass reinforcement in a PA 6 matrix.  The award-winning design features 18 adjustment options to more comfortably fit drivers or passengers. It meets all required safety requirements while improving crash and long-term fatigue performance, yet reduces mass 45% as well as wall thickness (increasing packaging space) without any cost increase.  The part's design was extensively analyzed via a proprietary simulation tool, UltrasimÒ, increasing confidence in the ability to accurately predict behavior of continuously reinforced thermoplastic composites.  The part is produced in a hybrid injection-molding process that combines robotic handling of the pre-cut preimpregnated continuous-fiber insert and an infrared heater inside the injection molding tool that preheats and pre-forms the cold sheet prior to tool closure and overmolding with impact-modified, discontinuous short glass/PA 6, which is used to form ribs, edges, and other geometry that long fibers cannot fill.

OEM/Vehicle General Motors Co. 2013 Opel Astra OPC sports sedan System Supplier SeaTcon AG Material Processor Reinart

Material Supplier BASF Resin Ultramid B3S & B3ZG8 PA6

For More Information See: http://www.plastics-car.com/Upholstery