SymaLITE COMPOSITES OFFER LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

LENZBURG, SWITZERLAND – K 2004 – It has been a banner year for Quadrant Plastic Composites’ SymaLITE products. Since the lightweight composite’s commercial launch just over a year ago, it has earned the prestigious Innovation Award in 2003 for new plastics applications from the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), and it has also delivered concrete solutions to several automotive designs.

Among these solutions was a wear-resistant, lightweight underfloor shielding system for the new BMW 5 and 6 series models, which SymaLITE materials helped enable. The system completely encloses the vehicle underbody with four SymaLITE parts. Tier 1 supplier Seeber developed the system, which includes a new part moulding process based on tools with up to four cavities. Seeber selected a high strength grade of SymaLITE with wear-resistant PP-film on both sides to withstand chipping on bad roads. Besides lightweight toughness, SymaLITE composites helped the system reduce weight and drag, improve acoustic properties and eliminate the need for PVC anticorrosion coatings.

Designers typically reduce a part’s weight by reducing its wall thickness to the material’s limits of structural stiffness. SymaLITE composite materials, however, offer the sensible alternative of increasing a part’s wall thickness while reducing the density of the material, which results in an increase of stiffness while keeping its weight.

SymaLITE is made from glass and PP fibres that are first processed into a mixed fleece and then heated and laminated to impregnate the reinforcing fibers with the thermoplastic matrix. After heating the thin sheets, the frozen-in-stresses in the reinforcement fibers induce a significant increase of wall thickness that reduces the material’s density. Parts can be made with low pressure (< 5 bar) in aluminum tools or, for prototypes, even wooden tools. Low pressure forming reduces investment costs and allows the use of family tools, where a complete set of automotive underfloor parts could be moulded in one stroke. Individual parts can then be cut out in a secondary operation by stamping, water or laser jet.

The number of potential applications for SymaLITE materials is only beginning to be apparent. The lightweight durable composite is undergoing developments for interior applications including headliners, parcel shelves, door and instrument panel covers, claddings for compartments and pillars. The material is also a strong consideration for exterior applications, such as roof modules in combination with decorative top layers.

Reader enquiries

Quadrant Plastic Composites
Hardstrasse 5
CH-5600 Lenzburg
Switzerland
+41 62 885 81 50
qpc@​qplas.com
www.quadrantcomposites.com

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Notes for editors

Quadrant Plastic Composites is the world’s leading manufacturer of glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) composites. The semi-finished sheet form is processed into sophisticated components, primarily for the automotive industry, using large-volume pressing processes; these components satisfy the highest safety standards, as well as featuring low weight compared to materials such as metal.

The Quadrant Group is a global leader in high-performance polymer material solutions in the form of semi-finished and finished products. These specialty engineering thermoplastics and composites are superior in performance over metals and other materials, and are used in a growing number of applications developed with leaders in a wide range of industries.

Learn more about Quadrant at www.quadrantcomposites.com and www.quadrantplastics.com.