Suzuki Motor Corporation has developed polypropylene (PP) resin material which is approximately 10% lighter than the current PP and said to be excellent in material colouring.
The new resin, called Suzuki Super Polypropylene (SSPP), is used for the front bumper under garnish of the new Escudo (Vitara) launched in Japan on 11 July.
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In the recent years, automakers have needed to reduce the weight of resin parts and make them more environment friendly. Suzuki continues to colour the parts before moulding, avoiding the need for painting.
In order to satisfy both rigidity and impact resistance, previous PP parts needed the addition of rubber and inorganic filler material such as talc to the base resin. The talc was the main factor that increased weight and led to colour dulling due to degraded transparency.
SSPP requires the addition of styrene series thermoplastic elastomer and no talc. Compared to current PP, flexural rigidity is the same and weight is down because there is no talc. Comparable parts are about 10% lighter and colouring retention is better.
The front bumper under garnish equipped to the Escudo has adopted SSPP on market models for the first time in the world*4. It realizes high brightness silver metallic color without painting due to the high colorability of SSPP. Because it has no paint layer, in case of scratches such as stone chips, it is difficult to distinguish a scratch. It can also reduce environmental load because it does not emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
SSPP is a new technology in which a patent has been applied for, and Suzuki will expand the usage of SSPP to the interior parts and exterior parts such as bumpers in the future.
