Application of Microcellular and Semi-Rigid PUR-RIM in the European Automotive Industry

This is a review of todays PUR-RIM applications in the European automotive industry, compared with those in the USA. Because of the different demands, markets and processing technologies, we obtain different results on the two continents: a high volume facia market in the States in contrast to a European market of numerous different parts in low volume production. The different part types in Europe, the necessary material variations and the processing methods are described. In-spite of the fact that there are many competitive materials, an expanding market for PUR-RIM and especially for PUR-RRIM is expected due to the excellent performance of these materials in automotive applications.