Polykemi AB - est.1968 - Short facts:
 Main member of the Polykemi
Group.
 Scandinavia’s biggest developer
and producer of customer adapted
compounds
A new light weight material reduces the part weight:
Mercedes Benz of Germany in
cooperation with Polykemi of Sweden!
Mercedes Benz has had their eyes on a quite interesting Polykemi-material for
some time. Their target in mind was to replace a PBT with glass fibers currently
used in the inside frames of sun visors. Since this Polykemi material indeed has
properties that you really wouldn´t expect from a polypropylene based
compound, this development project has turned out to be very successful and
Mercedes is currently using the high performance PP based 40% glass fiber
reinforced compound - being one member of the POLYfill PP HC-family.
- First of all our material is substantially lighter. Mercedes Benz is very
much appreciating the help to reducing the weight of their cars –
resulting in lower fuel consumption and reduction of CO2 emissions,
important for the next step within EEC in year 2020 when new lower
limits for CO2 emissions for new cars will be launched. For the time being
the Polykemis POLYfill HC-material is used in the Mercedes C-class cars,
but Mercedes also opens up for the possibility of this grade also being
used in further models reveals Mr Richard Vanselow –MD of Polykemi´s
German subsidiary.
Official material approval!
The technical properties of the Polykemis material resembles glass fiber filled
PBT and PA6 and in many applications it is indeed possible to replace those
grades. Polykemi has an official approval by Mercedes Benz according to
”Werknorm” DBL 5404.45 and is listed (from 10 – 40% GF content) on the APSlist for approved materials - “Qualified interior raw materials from localized
production”. So far the approval is valid for Europe and also the work for
obtaining approvals also for North America and Asia is intense and very close
together with the Polykemi subsidiaries in US and China.
Polykemis POLYfill PPH GF5040HC is used for the inside frames of the sun
visors in the Mercedes C-Class.
A specially designed sun visor frame!
The principles - thinking in new directions, to see new possibilities and to
question traditional solutions has been guide lines both for material choice and
part construction…
- The frame is designed in a special way so the supporting structure could be
made in one material only, rather than before when the business mostly used
combinations of metal & plastics. Previously this part was produced in glass
fiber reinforced PBT but now the material choice is POLYfill HC. With a monomaterial solution you don´t have to use complex methods of manufacturing
and thus costs are saved. Thanks to our material also the part weight also has
been decreased informs Mr. Henrik Eriksson R&D manager of Polykemi.
- Of course it’s been extra interesting and exciting to contribute in the
development of this new concept in close cooperation with Mercedes
Benz - one of the world leading automotive producers. We could show
our ability to give support from our in-house R&D departments and this
fact is an important feature of benefit also for other future new world
wide projects for OEM´s, TIER 1,2,3 as well as suppliers - underlines Mr
Richard Vanselow.
- High performance glass fiber reinforced PP has been on the market for
some years but still not in too many large volume applications. Recently
we have seen some practical examples that the automotive industry has
started to understand that this modern PP-material can be a workable
strong option in areas where the technical properties before has called
for PA6 or PBT solutions. Now the benefits of this insight is really starting
to show, ends Mr. Henrik Eriksson, R&D manager at Polykemi.
Picture: Mercedes Benz C-Class
Picture: Interior - Mercedes Benz C-Class.
Picture: Inside frame - sun visor - used in Mercedes Benz C-Class.