Thermoplastic Olefins for Automotive Soft Interior Trim

Recent technological advances have made thermoplastic olefins a viable material for automotive soft interior trim. Targeted at replacing PVC skins, polyurethane foams, and substrates made from traditional styrenics, these new polypropylenes can be used in such applications as instrument panels, door panels, consoles, and seating. They offer many advantages over current materials in these stringent applications.

This paper describes the olefinic materials that are suitable for soft interior skins, polyolefin extruded foam sheets that can be used in a laminate with the skin, rigid olefin compounds that are used for substrates, and the process to use these materials in manufacturing soft interior trim components.