The Car of the Future

with lightweight solutions from Profol

 

In times of worldwide resource scarcity and climate change, social as well as economic interests are changing. Energy-efficient mobility is becoming increasingly important. This results in two major challenges for the automotive industry:  

Strict environmental protection regulations and the associated emission laws must be followed. When EU directives came into force in 2020, European car manufacturers are required to reduce average CO2 fleet emissions to below 95 g CO2/km. This necessitates to reduce the fuel consumption, achievable with a lower weight of cars.
Electric vehicles have another challenge: the minimum range to achieve greater market acceptance. This is an additional reason why the materials used in vehicles must become lighter to achieve the targeted energy efficiency. 

A new industrial scale solution to meet these requirements is Profol’s lightweight material progano. Made from unique glass fiver reinforced polypropylene UD tapes, it opens new ways to manufacture composite components. Whether in the automotive, construction or leisure industries, progano enables engineers to reduce component weight, increase strength and make manufacturing more efficient. Profol composites are fully recyclable and reduces the CO2 footprint by factor 4 compared to aluminum. 

Lighter: Progano saves up to 35% weight compared to aluminum and 75% compared to steel. Due to the lower density, the components can be designed with lower material usage. 

Stronger: Progano is up to 50% stronger than aluminum alloys and has excellent performance in crash tests. 

Faster: Process cost and time savings through direct integration of several functional elements into just one process step of component manufacture.  

Profol’s lightweight solution progano can be used in almost any thermoplastic application that replaces aluminum or steel components. 

  • Automotive door panels 
  • Side impact protection 
  • Bumper beam structures 
  • Vehicle battery boxes 
  • Trailer bodies 
  • Caravan elements 
  • Sport boats 
  • Engine mounts 
  • Seat backrests 
  • Armrests Trunk liners 

Profol’s organo sheet is a highly developed composite consisting of up to 10 layers of UD tape. Profol’s UD tapes proUD made of glass fibers unidirectionally embedded in a polypropylene matrix combines two materials with great properties that are unbeatable together. 

proUD 0°    – glass fiber in machine direction
proUD 90°  – glass fiber transverse to the machine direction
proUD X      – combination of machine and transverse direction 

Profol’s lightweight materials proUD and progano are setting new standards for the next generation of lightweight construction efficient and simply strong! 

Contact us and we will find the best solution for you! 

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