The Rise Of Smart Cars: Automotive Plastics May Usher in The New And Most Exciting Part Of Development

Jan 14, 2022

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Recently, at an automobile exhibition with the theme of “better Life of Zhaopin” in Changchun, 5G technology, intelligent control, self-driving, new energy vehicles and other activities attracted a lot of attention. In recent years, the automobile industry is developing in the direction of lightweight, intelligence, automation, environmental protection and so on, and the new concept automobile has gradually come into practical application from the theory. 

With the development of new technology and new concept cars, while the automobile industry is further upgraded, its related fields are also subject to a chain reaction. Intelligence and environmental protection are the two main themes of the development of the automobile industry in the future. The application of intelligent technology and new materials can be said to be very important partners in the current development of the automobile industry. According to the data, it is very necessary for new energy vehicles to lighten weight, and how to reduce weight and ensure performance is the focus of research, while the research field of intelligent vehicles is currently focused on the safety, comfort and human-computer interaction of vehicles. 

What is encouraging is that according to the survey, the plastic consumption of passenger cars in China will be 4.03 million tons in 2018, and the average plastic consumption of cars will exceed 500kg/ vehicles by 2020. As the largest automobile market in the world, there is a lot of room for automobile increment in China. In the process of the future development of the automobile industry, there is a great demand for plastics in many research fields of intelligent vehicles, which can be predicted to bring development opportunities for the plastic industry. 

New energy vehicles keep growing, and lightweight technology attracts attention.

The concept of environmental protection and energy saving is an important driving force for the transformation from automobile to clean use. The original demand for emission reduction is reflected in the use of clean energy, and as experiments have proved that lightweight vehicles also play a significant role in the work of emission reduction. Automobile lightweight is already the trend of automobile development in the world. Here we quote a piece of data on the network: when the weight of the car is reduced by 1%, the fuel consumption can be reduced by 0.7%; when the weight of the whole vehicle is reduced by 10%, the fuel efficiency can be increased by 6%. For every 100 kg reduction in vehicle equipment quality, fuel consumption can be reduced by 0.3-0.6 liters per 100 km. It can be seen that the relationship between automobile lightweight and energy saving and emission reduction is closer than we imagined. 

In addition to the upgrading of traditional metal materials and the addition of various alloys, the addition of plastics is also widely valued. For example, the use of high-strength plastics instead of traditional metal shells on new fuel engines, the application of carbon fiber reinforced plastics in automobile interior parts, the packaging of plastic materials on new energy power batteries, and so on. With the addition of modified plastics, the process of automobile lightweight has been further accelerated, and it has also become a related field that benefits from the development of growth under this trend. 

Active Safety Technology of Automotive powered by Engineering Plastics. 

Automobile active safety technology includes ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), EBD, ACC, BDS, tire pressure monitoring, reversing image and so on. It can also be understood as intelligent monitoring, processing and calculation, automatic induction and automatic control. With the improvement of intelligent technology, the requirements for electronic components are correspondingly increasing. with the development of intelligent vehicles, more and more automotive electronic devices are bound to be put into use, so the requirements for plastic components in electronic equipment are also higher. such as dimensional stability, flame retardancy, heat resistance, high sensitivity, mechanical properties and other characteristics have become new demand growth points. 

It is worth noting that, compared with traditional metal materials, engineering plastics have more extensive adaptability because of their insulation, non-magnetism, anti-interference, anti-rust and lightweight. Plastic parts are expected to replace metal parts, reduce damage and frequent replacement, and prolong the service life of electronic products. 

The demand of automobile interior drives the development of new materials.

In automobile safety seats, the application of waterborne polyurethane (PUR) coating is gradually expanding, which not only enhances the mechanical properties of the material, such as wear resistance and deformation resistance, but also improves the safety and comfort of users. 

In addition, the development of intelligent vehicles will also have an impact on the interior layout division in the future. According to the division of SAE in the United States, high-level L4/L5-level smart cars in the future can remove the steering wheel, resulting in a more flexible interior layout, such as the self-driving concept car 360C proposed by Volvo earlier. Plastic has more advantages in this respect because of its flexible modeling ability and lighter weight, especially thanks to the development of composite technology in recent years, more new materials and new processing technology will make the automobile interior more changeable. 

Materials pay more attention to environmental protection. 

When it comes to environment-friendly, in addition to applying recycled plastics to automobile manufacturing, biodegradable bio-based plastics are also more and more favored by automobile manufacturers, especially in the manufacture of smart cars. It is more “human” while it is full of science and technology and a sense of the future. In recent years, investment in the research and development of bio-based plastics has increased. It is reported that Ford began research and production in 2008 and has been applied in the North American market. Porsche uses natural fiber composites made of wood fiber and bioplastics to make the body of its new sports car. The Visionary Concept concept tire introduced earlier by tire supplier Michelin is lightweight through 3D printing technology on the basis of using biodegradable materials. 

At present, whether it is a small-scale research and production practice or the proposal of the concept, we can expect that the environmental protection of intelligent vehicles will be further reflected in the environmental protection of materials. At present, there are still few applications of bio-based plastics, and the development, upgrading and promotion of bio-based plastics will continue in the future. 

Conclusion: the field of intelligent car is a big cake, and the related industries will develop together under its drive. In view of the wide application of plastics in automobile manufacturing, with the rise of the smart car industry, automotive plastics may usher in the new and most exciting part of the development.