What is the application status of plastics in auto parts?

2019-12-19 10:13:25

With the development of automobile in the direction of reducing consumption and emission, being safer and more environmentally friendly, and with the independent R & D and innovation of China's automobile industry, the strategic demand for building an independent brand is becoming increasingly urgent, resulting in new opportunities and challenges for the application of plastics in automobile, such as its parts manufacturing industry, engineering plastics and modified plastics suppliers.

China's automobile industry has entered a high-speed development stage. China's automobile industry has gradually developed into the world's four major automobile production countries and three major automobile consumption countries. Driven by the rapid growth of automobile industry, a high growth industry group related to automobile has been formed. Plastic industry is one of the industry groups. As an important variety of automobile materials, the output value of automobile plastic materials is growing. The main development direction of automobile material technology is lightweight and environmental protection. Reducing the weight of automobile itself is one of the effective measures to reduce automobile emissions and improve fuel efficiency. For every 10% reduction in the weight of the car, the fuel consumption can be reduced by 6-8%. At present, compared with the past, the weight of foreign cars has been reduced by 20-26%. It is expected that in the next 10 years, the weight of cars will continue to reduce by 20%. The development and application of new lightweight plastic materials will continue to be the focus of automotive materials.

Plastics and their composites are important lightweight materials for automobiles. They can not only reduce the weight of parts by about 40%, but also reduce the purchase cost by about 40%. Therefore, their application in automobiles has been increasing rapidly in recent years. According to statistics, the average plastic consumption per car in the world has reached 105kg in 2000, accounting for 8-12% of the total weight of the car, among which the plastic consumption in the car is higher than that in the truck and bus. For example, Audi A2 car, the total weight of plastic parts has reached 220kg, accounting for 24.6% of the total material consumption. It is reported that each car in Germany uses an average of nearly 300kg of plastic products, accounting for about 22% of the total consumption of automobile materials. It is a country in the world that uses more plastic auto parts.

At present, the interior parts of foreign automobile have been basically plastic, and the application of plastic in automobile is expanding from interior parts to exterior parts, body and structural parts. The future development direction is to develop reinforced plastic composite materials and high-performance resin materials for structural parts and exterior parts, and pay high attention to the recyclability of materials. In terms of varieties, polyolefin materials have the trend of unifying automobile interior and exterior decoration materials into polyolefin materials in recent years due to their small density, good performance and low cost. Therefore, the use of polyolefin materials has increased greatly. It is expected that polypropylene will maintain an annual growth rate of 8% in the future, and polyethylene will also have a strong growth momentum. At present, the raw materials of automobile plastics in our country are relatively few and some of the product properties can not meet the requirements. A considerable number of them still need to be imported or replaced by modified plastics.

The application of plastics in auto parts is developing with the development of auto industry. The strong development of automobile industry puts forward new demands for materials, especially based on the requirements of cost and lightweight. Non-metallic materials such as engineering plastics and composite materials are gradually becoming the new favorite of automobile and parts raw materials. The amount of plastic used in automobile has become an important mark to measure the level of automobile design and manufacture in developed countries. It is reported that by 2020, the average amount of plastic used for automobiles in developed countries will reach more than 500kg / vehicle. Polypropylene (PP), ABS resin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) are widely used in automobiles. Obviously, polyolefin materials constitute the main plastic parts of automobiles, and this trend will become more and more obvious in the future.

Plastic is a kind of energy-saving material, which has the characteristics of low relative density, suitable for various processing methods, sound absorption, shock resistance and heat insulation, excellent electrical insulation and chemical resistance, Composite Toughening and strengthening, low energy consumption in production, and so on. Plastic for automobile has become one of the important materials for automobile parts.

Mastering the structure, performance, manufacture and application of various plastics is very important for the design, material selection, production and use of auto parts. In other words, fully understanding the relationship between the plastic structure and performance can enable the auto parts design engineer to correctly select the materials and design the shape, strength and structure of the parts; the parts manufacturer can correctly select the material brand, determine the forming and processing methods, processing technology and processing equipment, formulate the operation procedures, and produce qualified products; the auto parts user can reasonably use them Products to ensure reliable operation.