David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
Mazda Motor Corporation has developed, jointly with Japan Polypropylene Corporation, a new resin material for vehicle parts that maintains the same rigidity as parts made with conventional materials while achieving significant weight reduction.
When the material is used for both front and rear bumpers, as it will in the all-new Mazda CX-5 SUV to go on sale this spring, it contributes to weight reduction of approximately 20 percent over conventional material. The company blended two components found in polypropylene and rubber, the constituents of resin, that have different properties, and succeeded in distributing them in a double-layer structure. While the surface has excellent paint film adhesion, the inner section retains high rigidity and impact absorption, with reduced thickness.
The reduced thickness not only allows a significant reduction in the raw material required to manufacture the parts, it also allows for a shorter cooling period after molding, and by using computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology, the fluidity of the resin material has also been optimized. As a result, bumper molding time, previously 60 seconds, has been halved to 30 seconds, leading to major reductions in the amount of energy consumed in the production process.
Mazda said it plans to use these bumper covers on other upcoming new models following the CX-5.
When the material is used for both front and rear bumpers, as it will in the all-new Mazda CX-5 SUV to go on sale this spring, it contributes to weight reduction of approximately 20 percent over conventional material. The company blended two components found in polypropylene and rubber, the constituents of resin, that have different properties, and succeeded in distributing them in a double-layer structure. While the surface has excellent paint film adhesion, the inner section retains high rigidity and impact absorption, with reduced thickness.
The reduced thickness not only allows a significant reduction in the raw material required to manufacture the parts, it also allows for a shorter cooling period after molding, and by using computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology, the fluidity of the resin material has also been optimized. As a result, bumper molding time, previously 60 seconds, has been halved to 30 seconds, leading to major reductions in the amount of energy consumed in the production process.
Mazda said it plans to use these bumper covers on other upcoming new models following the CX-5.
