PP (Polypropylene) has been used by approximately 50% of the
entire resin for vehicle bodies.
By unifying PP grade of interior trimming parts which mainly
uses PP, to one type, the goal of this study is to achieve the
following; (1) improvement of material recycling, (2) efficient
parts development (3) material cost reduction.
In molding trimming parts, the suppliers use PP of different
grades, and different pigments are colored and compounded for
vehicle model, grade, model years. So the material combinations are
numberless.
These various material combinations caused a great loss in the
process from producing materials to manufacturing parts, and made
the material recycling of waste plastics difficult.
At first, Subaru selected one kind of PP grade, talc grade, and
pigment for one color, then fused and mixed three components in
injection molding.
The second, FHI plans to construct the cooperated processing
system to recycle waste plastics by suppliers on the basis of
unified PP material.
Because the recycling of waste plastics in common process and
for mass production is now possible with the cooperated processing
system, the waste plastic discharge from the group factories will
be counted "zero."