TPU auto interior skins: a first for blow molding.Interior automotive skins are being extrusion blow molded for the first time in TPU TPU - Text Processing Utility , thanks to a collaboration in Germany between Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. in Bonn and Bayer MaterialsScience of Leverkusen (parent of Bayer Polymers in Pittsburgh). Kautex Textron claims its Blowskin products are cost-competitive versus slushmolded PVC PVC: see polyvinyl chloride. PVC in full polyvinyl chloride Synthetic resin, an organic polymer made by treating vinyl chloride monomers with a peroxide. and spray-coated thermoset A polymer-based liquid or powder that becomes solid when heated, placed under pressure, treated with a chemical or via radiation. The curing process creates a chemical bond that, unlike a thermoplastic, prevents the material from being remelted. See thermoplastic. urethane urethane (yoor´ithān´), n ethyl carbamate used as an anesthetic agent for laboratory animals, formerly used as a hypnotic in humans. skins for instrument panels, door trim and the like. Blow molded TPU skins are formed in a cold mold and removed by a robot. Dual-cavity tooling reportedly helps make productivity of the new blow molding approach 70% higher than for slush-molded PVC skins. TPU is said to impart excellent scratch and abrasion resistance, excellent grain replication, and ability to produce skins thinner than 1 mm. Bayer developed co-extruded skins with an aromatic baselayer TPU and aliphatic aliphatic /al·i·phat·ic/ (al?i-fat´ik) pertaining to any member of one of the two major groups of organic compounds, those with a straight or branched chain structure. al·i·phat·ic adj. , uv-stabilized skin-layer TPU. This approach maintains lightfastness in the lighter colors favored in auto interiors. Bayer: (800) 662-2927 * PTDirect: 468PT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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