Mercedes Benz of Germany in cooperation with Polykemi of Sweden!

- 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 APS- list 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 mono-material 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.

fig. 2: Interior - Mercedes Benz C-Class.

-  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.

www.polykemi.se