With a stunning 75% of automotive manufacturers reporting business interruption caused by the COVID-19 shutdown of non-essential businesses, many are taking a hard look at the impact of supply chain globalization1. More specifically, automotive OEMs are either proactively reshoring or planning to reshore to protect their supply chains — and businesses — from the political and economic fallout created by the pandemic.
With the rise of electric vehicles, new technologies, and tougher fuel standards, the automotive industry is booming these days, and so is the plastics industry. With manufacturers looking to make lighter, less expensive components, while also installing new electronics and their housings, there have been numerous innovations involving plastic automotive parts and designs in 2020, and there are even more on the horizon.
Working with an experienced custom injection molder gives automotive manufacturers the advantage of having plastics-specific expertise applied to their automotive injection molding project. It's a practical solution for ensuring compliance with material selection and complex part performance, design, functionality, and quality control.
Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards coupled with heightened consumer sensitivities to the environmental impact of using fossil fuels are tightening fuel consumption requirements for the auto industry.
Worldwide,sales of electric vehicles rose by 73% in 2018— a banner year by any measurement, but all the more remarkable given it followed sales growth of 86% in 2017. The sales figures are more than impressive; they reflect a shift in consumer demand for affordable, eco-friendly transportation options and the bellwether of change in the automotive industry.
当反光膜树脂被介绍duced in the 1950s, some auto manufacturers were unfamiliar with the benefits of metal-to-plastic conversion, i.e. how to design plastics into products, and how to manufacture with plastics. Today this practice, also known as “lightweighting,” is becoming increasingly popular with automakers as they race to comply with a federal mandate calling for automobiles to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
在2012年,President Obama finalized standards to increase fuel efficiency in cars and light-duty trucks to nearly 55 mpg by model year 2025, with the aim of savingAmericans more than $1.7 trillion at the gas pump and reducing U.S. oil consumption by 12 billion barrels.
While there are several ways to meet this mandate,reducing the car’s weightis one of the best – and easiest – ways to improve fuel economy without impacting other design and safety factors. That's why many automakers are rethinking production and usingcustom injection molded plastic componentsinstead of metal assemblies.
Plastic automotive components can be susceptible to rework, rejection and budget-breaking increases in total cost of production if the parts used contain molding defects. Often these defects evidence themselves during end product review — when it could be too late for a remedy.
The automotive industry is experiencing rapid advancements, some of which have been brought about by federal regulations and others as a result of manufacturers leveraging opportunities presented by new materials and technologies.
