DSM in Automotive / transportation: Safer, lighter, greener, brighter
Our advanced plastics, resins and fibers help build lighter, stronger, safer and more sustainable vehicles - from under-the-hood and powertrain applications to steering wheels, the chassis, airbags, pipes, hoses, interiors and exteriors. We’re even helping the aviation industry lose weight and reduce fuel consumption.
The need to preserve precious fossil fuels and limit carbon emissions is what increasingly drives our industry. Today it’s about making conventional vehicles more efficient through smart and eco-friendly science. Tomorrow it’s about creating electric and hybrid vehicles that are environmentally and commercially viable.
Lighter vehicles
Our family of durable, high-temperature resistant and increasingly bio-renewable plastics is changing the anatomy of a car. They’re also taking carbon out of the car, replacing uneconomical and un-ecological metals.
For example, 10 years ago, a metal-based airbag, that most vital of safety devices, weighed 3.2kg and took 12 separate processes to make. Today, the weight is a mere 1.2kg and it uses only 6 processes. The result: Less energy is required to produce it, while a lighter airbag equals lower fuel consumption. This particular innovation is all thanks to our Akulon® PA6 material – part of a whole family of advanced plastics based on 50 years of leadership in polymers and caprolactam, the raw material for PA6 polyamide.
Our composite resins and powder coatings tell an equally compelling story. Turane®, for example, strengthens automotive and aerospace parts while being very easy to process thanks to innovative vacuum infusion.
Greener vehicles
Carbon emissions carry an environmental cost to all of us. But for our customers there’s a financial cost too. The EU, for example, now imposes a fine of 100 Euros for every gram of excess carbon emitted per car – and those fines will only increase.
Our solution? To develop a carbon neutral plastic called EcoPaXX™ that’s 70% bio-renewable (the highest in the industry so far). Similarly, our Stanyl® Timing Chain Tensioner reduces CO2 emissions by up to 2g per km.
Our composite resins are increasingly used for key applications (like the Renault Clio fender support system) because of their ability to punch way above their weight in terms of strength, durability, and of course sustainability. Take Palapreg® ECO, our new 55% bio-renewable resin - the highest bio-renewable content available on the market today – with no drop in processing standards or product performance.
Looking further ahead we’re already co-developing applications for starters, alternators, batteries and electro-motors in hybrid and electric cars. And our composite resins are enabling LH Aviation to make the world's most fuel-efficient small jet aircraft.
Cooler vehicles (in both respects)
Both in automotive pipes and hoses, and under the hood our resins and plastics work harder and last longer than many alternative materials – a crucial point, as next generation engines get smaller, and therefore hotter.
And of course, aesthetics are important (who wants an ‘uncool’ car?). We’re now developing solvent-free, waterborne coatings like NeoRez® that meet the exacting standards of automotive OEMs for vehicle interiors, helping drivers feel proud of their cars.
