Lighting
Lighting Systems: The future’s bright (and plastic)
One of the first things that draws a consumer to a vehicle is how the exterior looks. That’s why it’s so important to manufacture exterior parts with an attractive look and feel. Whether it’s for rearview mirrors, door handles, or wheel covers, the requirements are for strong materials with high aesthetic value, and a smooth touch. This makes excellent UV stability absolutely critical.
Our broad portfolio of materials has grades suited to a wide range of exterior applications – for both painted and unpainted parts. Glass fiber–reinforced Akulon polyamide 6 addresses all the needs of exterior parts, with UV-stabilized grades suitable for parts with complex shapes, including exterior mirror bases, and parts manufactured using gas-assist injection molding, such as door handles.
For door handles, our specialized grades provide high UV stability when unpainted, and smoothness and excellent adhesion when painted. For exterior rearview mirrors, our materials combine aesthetics with high stiffness and strength for what is ultimately an important safety application.
Lighting Systems: The future’s bright (and plastic)
Getting a handle on next-generation plastics
Browse our High Performance Plastics for body panels and structural parts
DSM provides thermoplastic solutions for exterior rearview mirrors and actuators which provide stability in all conditions at all speeds and aesthetically pleasing
Akulon polyamide 6 & 66 resins represent the best value in all-purpose engineering materials, offering an excellent balance of design and processing with outstanding mechanical properties in diverse operating environments.
EcoPaXX is a high-performance aliphatic, biobased polyamide that uniquely balances the benefits of typical short and long chain polyamides, such as low moisture uptake and high mechanical performance.
Our Arnite portfolio includes high performance engineering polyester plastics (PBT, PET, and blends) that combine high strength and rigidity with excellent processing characteristics.
For automotive exterior applications, look and feel are both very important. DSM has proven its performance in this market with the right materials for years for e.g. mirror housing and door handles. Today we also offer a reinforced Akulon polyamide 6 for unpainted exterior automotive parts that require very good surface quality. By eliminating the need to paint such exterior parts, DSM is making a major contribution to unit cost savings without compromising on quality.
While many new parts designed to be manufactured from engineering plastics can bypass or reduce the number of secondary processing steps, some parts still require operations such as painting and printing.
As car manufacturers continuously focus on reducing weight to improve fuel efficiency, replacing metal parts with plastic remains a key challenge.
Designing an innovative part is only one step in the process. Once you have the part design and the material grade selected, and you have successfully manufactured the part in the lab, you need to roll it out for commercial production.
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