With the fresh Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards coming in this 2016, the auto manufacturing industry in the United States is investigating as many avenues it can to lower vehicle weight and thereby maximise fuel efficiency. In a bid to take advantage of this opening, various representatives in the industry and in plastics came together in the Society of Plastics Engineers’ Automotive Thermoplastic Polyolefins Conference in Troy. The conference was held last week, early this October, and its chief concern was with the substitution of plastic materials for car components such as the metal body parts and auto glass.
During the conference, the drive to better fuel economy was highlighted as representatives discussed the impending application of the new CAFA standards. The CAFE standards were originally started in 1975 as a reaction to the Arab Oil Embargo that took place two years prior. To explain them as simply as possible, the CAFE standards enact restrictions upon the fuel consumption of cars and other vehicles in the US, with the ultimate goal of encouraging better fuel economy. The CAFE standards are regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It is the Environmental Protection Agency that actually handles the evaluation of the cars’ fuel efficiency.
Technically, the fuel efficiency of a car has been most commonly related to three things: the efficiency of the engine’s technology, the ability of the auto glass to keep out sunlight and heat (to reduce air conditioning usage, which can actually mount up significantly in its contribution to fuel costs), and the weight of the vehicle itself. It is this last topic that was taken up by the conference last week as auto manufacturers and representatives of the plastic industry talked over the possibility of replacing more of the metal parts of vehicles with plastic composites, making vehicles even lighter and more fuel efficient than ever.
The problem, as some attendees of the conference said, is that making the switch shall require more than a simple trade-off of parts and materials. For example, using composite parts for vehicles’ bodies shall necessitate training for the technicians handling the work, since these are specialists who specialise in working with traditional auto parts. Still, industry experts are positive that they shall be able to overcome this major challenge soon, as plastic advances with the rest of technology.
A major issue for the plastic industry actually has to do with auto glass. While proponents of plastic for replacement argue that glazed polycarbonate may be used to replace the current laminated auto glass used for vehicles’ windshields and even windows, others say that polycarbonate is hardly ideal material to work with, given how easily it scratches and turns cloudy. Furthermore, auto glass can be repaired, whereas glazed polycarbonate cannot be restored very easily.
