In  order to understand how the first-tier suppliers view the development  trend of automotive exterior plastics, the reporter recently visited  Yanfeng Automotive Systems Co., Ltd., an external decoration system  company, Yanfeng Pio, the technical process of the enterprise technology  center engineering department. The person in charge of the department accepted an interview with the reporter.

The person  in charge said that in the environment of promoting energy saving, low  carbon and environmental protection, plastic plays an important role in  the exterior of the car with its excellent weight loss effect. All  OEMs are actively trying to replace existing metal parts with  high-performance plastic exterior parts to achieve lightweight vehicles  such as tailgates and fenders. At the same time,  mature exterior parts such as bumpers are also driving a new round of  innovation, which is to make plastics more environmentally friendly,  including the use of environmentally friendly raw materials, ensuring  green environmental protection and promoting plastic recycling. . As  a result, the automotive exterior plastics have been upgraded again,  and the 1.0 era, which only focused on performance standards, has  entered the more environmentally-friendly 2.0 era.

Material innovation

Safeguarding is a prerequisite
In order to  comply with the trend of lightweighting, Yanfeng Pio tried to make it  thinner for the exterior parts of plastics that have matured. The thinning and low density of plastics is an important direction for the development of plastics in the short term. In the long run, plastics will be increasingly used in automotive exterior parts. The  person in charge even boldly predicted that in the next 10-20 years,  the "four doors and two covers" of the car can be made of composite  plastic. Yanfeng Pio has tried to plasticize the  tailgate of the car. For example, it is the tailgate supplied by Roewe  e50. The inner panel of the tailgate module uses SMC plastic, the outer  panel uses TPO plastic, and the inner and outer covers are formed by  composite pressing.
It can be  seen that in the future, the proportion of plastics in exterior  decoration is getting higher and higher, and the wall thickness is  getting thinner and thinner. Many consumers will have doubts. Is this  really safe? In this regard, the person in charge said that all plastics will only be applied if the strength is up to standard. “In  order to ensure safety, Yanfeng Biou has specially set up a low-speed  collision and pedestrian protection laboratory. We are the first  external supplier to complete these experiments independently, which  also gives us better choice of safe materials and optimization. Structural design provides protection," the official said.
Environmentally friendly plastics are favored
As a  leading supplier, Yanfeng is not only skilled in the application of  plastics in the exterior parts, but also puts the vision farther, that  is how to apply these plastics more environmentally. This  is not only to take responsibility for the user, to achieve  environmental protection of the product; it is also responsible for the  social environment, to achieve environmental protection throughout the  production process.
First of  all, according to the person in charge, the company's technology center  has recently been committed to the development of high-gloss black,  bright silver and other paint-free decorative parts. Since  the spray-free plastics eliminate the need for high-energy painting  processes and improve the yield of parts, they have received much  attention in recent years. At present, these spray-free parts are mostly used in exterior decorative parts such as heat-dissipating grilles and columns. Among  the customers of Yanfeng Pio, Shanghai Volkswagen, Shanghai GM, BMW and  many other brands have successfully applied in some models.
Of  course, painting is still an important process for plastic exterior  parts. Yanfeng Pio has been working on the technical transformation of  the coating line, and the unit energy consumption has been reduced year  by year.
At the same  time, the company carried out the application research of water-based  paint a few years ago, replacing solvent-based paint with water-based  paint, that is, replacing the traditional organic solvent thinner with  water as a thinner of paint resin to reduce VOC in the production  process. Emissions reduce the impact on the environment and the atmosphere.
In addition, Yanfeng Pio also attaches great importance to the recyclability of exterior plastics. At present, the recoverability of exterior materials is 100%. For  plastics, although thermosetting plastics have higher strength than  thermoplastics, their recyclability is poor. Therefore, the development  of thermosetting plastics toward thermoplastics is also one of the  development trends of exterior plastics.
In fact,  the exterior parts of plastics, such as bumpers, have matured, and the  material selection has basically gone through the process of evolving  from a metal such as steel into a thermosetting plastic, and then a  thermosetting plastic into a thermoplastic. Yanfeng Pio has introduced several plastic tailgates, the outer and inner plates are thermosetting plastics. However,  in order to promote its sustainable development, Yanfeng Biou has  overcome the difficulties in layer-by-layer technology. At the end of  this year, it will launch a tailgate made of thermoplastics. It is  believed that this will become the development of decorative materials  at home and abroad. Important milestones.
From "Shanghai Automotive News" of the 1531 version of the C4: Ruan Xiqiong