Tepex technology featured in center console armrest manufacturing demonstration

Tepex composite sheet technology from specialty chemicals company Lanxess (Pittsburgh, PA, US) is featured in a live production demonstration during NPE2018: The Plastics Show taking place May 7 – 11 in Orlando, FL, US.

The composite sheet technology is used in various mass production applications in structural lightweight automotive design including front-end carriers, bumper beams, infotainment brackets, underfloor protection paneling, brake pedals, battery consoles, seat shells and backrests. The material provides considerable weight reduction without sacrificing performance, and can be combined with the traditional injection-molding process to create a part in a single step, for efficient processing.

It is featured in a lightweight center console armrest, an OEM replicate, that is being produced during NPE2018 in the Krauss-Maffei Corporation (Munich, Germany) booth (W403 in the West Hall). KraussMaffei, an international leader in injection molding machinery, extrusion, reaction process machinery, and automation, is demonstrating the production on their GXW 450 SpinForm injection molding machine.

The armrest component is the result of an engineering collaboration among technology leaders KraussMaffei; Proper Group (Warren, MI, US), manufacturer of production molds for the plastics industry; HRSflow, the hotrunner division of INglass Spa (Treviso, Italy); US Farathane (Auburn Hills, MI, US), supplier to automotive OEMs and tier suppliers, and Lanxess.

Each partner provided the following contributions to the project:

• Proper Group - 2K spin form tooling

• HRSflow - FLEXflow Servo Driven Valve Gate

• US Farathane – Consultation in part design and testing

• Lanxess – Tepex composite sheet

The Tepex composite sheet material provides 40% improvement in overall performance, along with a 15% reduction in overall weight.