Development of Mold in Color Plastics to Eliminate Paint without Compromising Aesthetic & Functional Requirements

Vehicle aesthetic appearance is critical factor in the perceived quality of a vehicle. Auto OEM focuses on the improvement of perceived quality. The perceived quality of a vehicle is improved by achieving a superior finish on the visible parts. Plastic parts used in visible areas are painted to achieve a superior finish & aesthetic. However, the painting process is very energy intensive, releases a lot of harmful VOCs into the environment, emits carbon di-oxide into the environment & is a very costly process. Also, painted parts pose a challenge for recycling at the end of life. For painting one square meter area, around 6.5 Kg of co2 is released. Additionally, the painting cost contributes to around 60 % of the part cost. As the emphasis has increased on sustainability & reducing the cost, we took the challenge to develop novel mold in color material to eliminate the painting process without compromising the aesthetic & functional requirements of part. The challenge was to develop the mold in color (MIC) material having a similar appearance as the painted part with no compromise on functional performance and use the existing injection molding tool. This paper explains the development methodology of MIC material & application validation methodology to ensure a similar aesthetic & functional requirement as painted part.