Methodology of plastic parts development in the automotive industry

Nowadays, the increasing use of plastic in the automotive industry complies with the desires of weight and cost reduction, material recyclability and increased performance. Today you can find plastic components in almost all subsystems of the vehicle, including the engine compartment, the interior cabin to the outside of the vehicle. Apart from the low weight, which can be translated to lower fuel consumption, the customer also gains with a gradual increase of plastic impact resistance due to the latest developments. It also contributes to automakers design and production versatility, useful life and keeping part quality related to steel (there is no corrosion).

Faced with this scenario, the purpose of this paper is to introduce an automotive injection moulding plastic component methodology in order to obtain technical and economical benefits of the latest designs with reduced part development time, reduced tooling costs, flexibility and design of style and quality.