Low Gloss ABS Advancements for Automotive Interior Components

Automotive Original Equipment Manufactures (OEM's) desire interior plastic components being used on consoles, doors, trim areas, and instrument panels to have very low gloss levels. In fact, some OEM's have specified a 2.0 or lower sixty degree Gardner gloss level for most first surface interior components molded in color (MIC) and without paint or a secondary finishing process such as a vinyl wrap. While a trend in the industry is to move toward PP based materials because PP parts are believed to provide lower gloss aesthetics and lower gloss gradients, key features and benefits of ABS products such as dimensional stability, impact, load bearing at elevated temperatures, and scratch resistance, are compromised. Recently, Dow Automotive has developed lower gloss capable ABS resins which also exhibit typical ABS physical and thermal properties. This paper will detail the gloss and gloss gradient advantages of these new low gloss ABS products over a standard talc filled PP material and two traditional ABS products as observed in a glove box outer injection molding trial.