Automotive

Polyurethanes are used throughout your car — in familiar places like the foam that makes your car seats comfortable, as well as a few places you might not expect. Did you know that polyurethanes are used in the bumpers, the interior “headliner” ceiling section, the car body, its spoilers, and in all the doors and windows?

Polyurethane use in transportation has increased 9 percent since 1998, and shows no signs of slowing down. Put simply, polyurethane enables manufacturers to provide drivers and passengers a lot more automobile “mileage” than just a few years ago, through:

reduced weight and increased fuel economy
increased comfort
corrosion resistance
insulation
sound absorption

Several types of polyurethane are used in cars and trucks for a variety of purposes. We’ve listed the major categories below.

Polyurethane Foam
Polyurethane foam offers automobile designers and manufacturers the means to produce seating that can be easily assembled, disassembled and recycled. It also meets the highest performance specifications over a wide range of firmness — without added weight.

Through many years of service, and even under heavy use, polyurethane foam retains its original firmness, shape and resiliency for the life of the vehicle. In a study comparing polyurethane-based seats to other materials, polyurethane cushioning with well over 5,000 hours of fleet use still met the original design intent, with negligible loss of hardness or comfort. Cushions made with other materials (polyester and natural rubberized fibers) had to be removed from the test vehicles due to compacting, deformation and degradation.

Arm rests, head rests, cushioned instrument panels and other parts of your car’s interior are all made with polyurethane foams. Thanks to efficient and cost-effective processes, these foams can be recycled to make carpeting for homes, offices and cars.

Reaction Injection-Molded Polyurethane
The automotive industry is the largest user of reaction injection-molded (RIM) polyurethane parts. RIM is used to maximize the shock absorption of your car’s fenders, bumpers and spoilers, without adding weight or bulk. Lightweight RIM polyurethanes give cars better gas mileage and allow engineers the freedom to create innovative designs that otherwise would never be possible, let alone affordable.

Until recently, metal alloys were used for automobile exterior parts. However, these alloys are much more susceptible to dents, dings, stone chips, and corrosion than polyurethane versions.

The advantages of RIM polyurethane continue inside the car. Today, many interior components are made with RIM, such as steering wheels, air ducts, floor mats and seat bottoms.

Polyurethane Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants and Elastomers (CASE)
Polyurethane coatings provide your car’s exterior with the high gloss, durability, scratch resistance and corrosion resistance that you expect. Polyurethane coatings are also used to glaze windshields and windows, increasing strength and providing fog resistance.

Polyurethane sealants and adhesives are also used in the production of headlights, signal lights and taillights, and are often used to bond bumpers onto the vehicle. The bond strength, durability, heat and ultraviolet resistance, combined with the ease of application, make polyurethane adhesives by far one of the best choices for these parts of your car.

Polyurethane elastomers are used to make water seals, o-rings, and puncture-resistant tire fill. The ease of molding these materials, combined with polyurethanes strength, durability and lightweight, make them ideal for use in all of these important areas.

Polyurethane Recycling Commitment
Polyurethanes help make your car safer and more comfortable while adding years to the vehicle’s life. But what happens to these materials when your car has reached the end of its useful life?

Polyurethanes are very ecologically friendly, and the solid waste output of the automobile industry has been substantially reduced because manufacturers and organizations like the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) pursue innovative recycling methods. CPI, in particular, identifies, demonstrates and promotes technologies for recycling and recovering polyurethane process and post-consumer scrap that continues to make polyurethane better not only for consumers but for the environment as well.

Already the industry regrinds the flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) from discarded car interiors into powders that, in turn, help produce new foam for carpet underlay, athletic safety mats, and other products. Some recycled foam granules ground down from car interiors are surface-coated and cured, coming full-circle to return as automotive floor mats and tire covers.

Used polyurethanes can even be transformed into valuable energy. In experiments conducted by CPI’s Polyurethane Recycle and Recovery Council, FPF was added to common municipal solid waste up to levels of 20% by weight. The results showed that the furnace operation and ash generation remained the same and emissions were under operating limits. Furthermore, adding polyurethane feedstock generated significant BTU value, reducing energy output.

In Europe, the European Isocyanate Producers Association (ISOPA) continues to support the use of carefully controlled incineration to convert post-consumer waste into valuable energy. Municipal solid waste (MSW) combustors with state-of-the-art energy recovery and flue gas cleaning technology are located in several European countries. Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Denmark are examples of countries where this technique is practiced to provide local communities with electricity and heating scenarios. Up to 10 percent of domestic electricity requirements can be generated by these units, and it is increasingly being considered as an acceptable recovery option.

polyurethanes 2008 technical conference (CD)

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