Automotive Industry is constantly upgrading the value offered on their products at optimized cost. Scratch and mar resistance of interiors and exterior parts, is an important attribute which is linked to perceived quality and value offered to customers. Polypropylene material is optimum material of choice for these parts due to its unique advantages. However, filled polypropylene material has poor scratch and mar resistance. Many techniques for scratch resistance improvement are available such as additions of slip agents, co additives, special fillers, siloxanes, etc. However, some of them may offer some disadvantages like stickiness or tackiness on the surfaces. The choice depends on its effectiveness & cost.
This paper deals with design of experiments to evaluate effectiveness of 4 types of additives and their optimum % to give scratch resistance improvement without having detrimental impact on other critical properties. Effect of additives on the scratch resistance improvement as well as its deterioration due to ageing was studied. Also, impact of additive on mechanical and performance properties like abrasion resistance, was also studied. This study was useful as design of experiments for evaluation of additive performance in polypropylene compound and to determine optimum % that would have no detrimental impact on other properties.