Product category:
Materials and components
News Release from: Sabic Innovative Plastics
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 15 December 2005
GE-Plastics invests in technology centre
GE-Plastics improves Global Application Technology Center to develop materials for large parts such as exterior automotive body panels and glazing.
GE-Plastics has improved its Global Application Technology Center to develop materials for large parts such as exterior automotive body panels and glazing As part of this, GE has invested in a Krauss-Maffei 2700 MX injection compression moulding machine to increase design flexibility in large parts
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 26 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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GE also plans to install a thermoforming machine with twin sheet capacity at the Bergen op Zoom facility in early 2006.
Rick Pontillo, General Manager, said: "The new injection-compression moulding and thermoforming equipment are important additions that will save customers time and resources in product development, while helping us create and test new materials for automotive glazing and body panel applications, transportation applications, and much more".
Injection-compression moulding is one of a limited number of processes for creating large, optical-quality parts for automotive glazing, such as sunroofs, which can add design innovation.
The equipment also promotes the use of lightweight plastic materials in larger parts such as fenders, door skins and tailgates to reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency.
Large injection-moulded parts can enable integration of assembly features and attachment points, reducing system costs.
The machine will let GE-Plastics produce real parts for testing and validate materials for real applications in terms of impact, paintability, stiffness, strength, surface appearance and dimensional accuracy.
Resins to be moulded using the machine include Noryl GTX resins for fenders, Xenoy resins for body panels and Lexan GLX resins for glazing, plus a line of high modulus ductile (HMD) materials with proprietary nano-filler technology.
These HMD materials can reduce gaps between automotive body panels through increased stiffness and lower coefficient of thermal expansion.
The thermoformer will be used to develop applications for new GE materials such as: high-performance thermoplastic composite for horizontal auto body panels; Rail-Lite composite from Azdel for large semi-structural panels in train interiors; no-paint systems featuring Lexan SLX, Geloy XTW and Xenoy resin grades; high-heat and flame-resistant resins such as Ultem and Noryl resin grades; and Lexan and Lexan Margard sheet for large glazing applications.
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