Solvay forms alliance for TPV supply. (Your Business in Brief).

Automotive TPO supplier Solvay Engineered Polymers in Auburn Hills, Mich., has formed an alliance with an independent compounder of thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs). This allows Solvay to supplement its TPO offerings with TPVs from Thermoplastic Rubber Systems, a two-year-old firm that operates 20 million lb/yr of compounding capacity in Shirley, Mass. Solvay has exclusive rights to sell TRS's NexPrene family of fully vulcanized TPVs to automotive markets in North America and Europe. NexPrene spans a Shore hardness range of 40 A to 50 D.

Up to now, Solvay has focused on auto-exterior TPO applications, which today amount to a market of about 25 lb/vehicle. Solvay is turning its sights to interior TPO uses, which add a market opportunity of 10 lb/car. TPVs in chassis and suspension uses add another market potential of 10 lb/car, and the newly emerging weather-seal business could offer an additional 25 lb/car. Most weather seals today are EPDM thermoset rubber. Switching to thermoplastics offers 20% cost saving per part, according to Solvay. One major Detroit auto maker is planning a midyear change that will convert one weather seal on an unnamed truck model to thermoplastic by Jan. 3, 2003. The seal will be a tri-layer extrusion, with a talc-filled PP structural support, TPV compression layer, and TPO gloss layer. (Solvay has proprietary technology for high-gloss TPOs.)

The agreement also gives Solvay non-exclusive rights to sell other TRS products--NexFlex SEBS-based TPEs, NexTrile TPVs based on NBR (nitrile rubber), and NexLink TPVs based on SEBS and EPDM. TRS also makes NexCoat, an abrasion-resistant HDPE coating designed for coextrusion over TPV weather seals. In addition, Solvay has an option to buy TRS.