Materials supplier Trinseo supported a premium German automotive OEM with a recyclate-containing grade that requires 29% less energy and 22% less water to produce.

“In the coming months, we're making available specialized molds to easily swap logos and textures on numerous cap sizes to produce a custom closure at a much lower initial cost,” Pontius said.

Trinseo’s Pulse GX50 PC/ABS was used by the Tier partner for the development phase, and the Pulse GX50 ECO PC/ABS with recyclat-containing PC was selected as the more sustainable solution for series production. Trinseo’s Pulse GX50 is widely used for the manufacturing of door panel parts for several existing premium models of the OEM; the selection was approved for use in the development phase of the SUV’s door panel, while the more sustainable version was tested in parallel as a drop-in solution for models using Trinseo’s all-prime material.

One of Trinseo’s Tier 1 partners was approached by its OEM customer in the development phase of a new premium SUV, with the request to change the proposed PC/ABS material for the top roll and support of the vehicle’s doors with a more sustainable grade for series production. This request came as a result of the OEM’s ambitious environmental initiative, which, among other goals, aims to offer a fully-carbon neutral passenger car fleet by 2039.

As the mobility revolution gears up, manufacturers are facing increased challenges. Not only is the development and engineering of hybrid, electric, and autonomous vehicles complex, there’s also constant pressure from regulators to meet economy, safety, and sustainability requirements, along with consumer demand for performance, digital connectivity, and aesthetics. Plastics can play a key role in many ways, from lightweighting and metal replacement to using bio-based feedstocks. Recyclate-containing content in the makeup of a resin is another way to create a solution with a lower footprint without sacrificing material performance.

Geoff Giordano is a tech journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in all facets of publishing. He has reported extensively on the gamut of plastics manufacturing technologies and issues, including 3D printing materials and methods; injection, blow, micro and rotomolding; additives, colorants and nanomodifiers; blown and cast films; packaging; thermoforming; tooling; ancillary equipment; and the circular economy. Contact him at [email protected].

For mold fabrication, the company added a CNC lathe and three electrical discharge machines (wire, sinker, and hole popper) to complement its CNC milling machine.

In a sign of robust injection molding demand, Utah’s Lakeshore Plastics expanded capacity of its Orem manufacturing facility by about 50% to 12,000 square feet.

Automation is critical to Lakeshore’s business. Removing high-end jewelry cases from a mold, for example, requires careful handling to maintain aesthetics, a task that is best performed by a robot. Molding polished parts of clear Tritan copolyester, which degrades quickly with any variation in cycle time, also requires automation. “The ARI top-entry robot is faster and more consistent at removing the part from the mold and prevents damage that could be introduced if a machine operator so much as bumps the mold when removing the part,” said Lakeshore CEO Kyle Pontius.

Coming soon are specialized molds designed to produce custom plastic caps in various sizes and textures at a lower initial cost.

To this end, materials supplier Trinseo took up a challenge presented by a leading premium German automaker and developed a polycarbonate/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (PC/ABS) material for interior automotive applications incorporating 30% recycled content. In doing so, the company delivered a solution with 24% less global warming potential compared with an all-prime resin. Approximately 7.000 tonnes of CO2 were saved over the lifetime of the project. To boot, production of the drop-in grade, dubbed Pulse GX50 ECO PC/ABS, required 29% less energy and 22% less water.

Pulse GX50 ECO PC/ABS is comparable in performance to its all-prime equivalent and comes with strong technical features, including superior flow properties, low temperature ductility, and low density. The backbone of Pulse GX50 ECO is Trinseo Magnum ABS, meaning that it has inherently low volatile organic compounds (VOCs), making it ideal for interior applications.

“The benefit to customers of our turnkey experience is risk mitigation,” Pontius said. “From CAD modeling to in-house fabrication and repair to prototyping and mass production, the development cycle is under one roof. If a mold has an issue, rather than having it taken out of the machine and shipped away for repair, we can diagnose the problem and repair it in a matter of hours, minimizing downtime and maximizing production schedules,” said Pontius.

Stephen has been with PlasticsToday and its preceding publications Modern Plastics and Injection Molding since 1992, throughout this time based in the Asia Pacific region, including stints in Japan, Australia, and his current location Singapore. His current beat focuses on automotive. Stephen is an avid folding bicycle rider, often taking his bike on overseas business trips, and is a proud dachshund owner.

To meet the customer’s request, the Tier 1 supplier validated a more sustainable PC/ABS compound against the manufacturer’s stringent standard that could work as a drop-in solution with the injection molding tools and within the tight project schedule.

Starting as a mold fabrication company in 2019, Lakeshore provides turnkey services from engineering through to assembly.

Testing validated that Pulse GX50 ECO is a drop-in equivalent of its all-prime counterpart, meeting the requirements set by the OEM’s standards and the crash performance on the existing platform, where it was used for the final validation round of the SUV project. Trinseo delivers about four kg of Pulse GX50 ECO PC/ABS for each vehicle.

Lakeshore is helping many companies onshore molds or rebuild molds from a previous supplier that are difficult to remove. For these transitions, Lakeshore helps customers confirm mold and tooling compatibility with its facility, match material and color, review quality control requirements, and plan logistics.

Lakeshore produces about four million caps annually and is adding equipment for cap lining. The company owns five injection molding machines (IMMs) from Absolute Haitian, ranging from 100 to 427 tons. Three of those IMMs are paired with top-entry robots from Absolute Robot. Lakeshore’s new manufacturing space can accommodate three more IMMs.