The front grille of a car not only has a beautiful appearance, but its essential function is to ensure that a large amount of air enters the engine compartment during engine operation, playing a role in intake and heat dissipation. In addition, the car grille can also protect the components inside the water tank and engine compartment from impact. Therefore, the material of the car intake grille needs to have good comprehensive performance.
Audi mass produces grille with recycled plastic for the first time
The well-known German car manufacturer Audi has started mass production of grilles containing recycled plastic for the first time. This innovative measure marks a significant breakthrough for Audi in the field of sustainable development. The grille is made of 27% recycled materials, including polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These materials have been applied to the new Audi A3 Sportback and Audi A3 Sedan models.
German thermoplastic composite material manufacturer Mocom and Czech automotive plastic parts manufacturer Winning Plastics have partnered to produce recycled materials for Audi.
Development and production of composite recycled materials
Developing and producing radiator grilles containing recycled materials is an exciting process, "said Werner Meschitz, Innovation Director at Winning Plastics The Winning Plastics team uses painted radiator grilles with appearance defects (such as dust inclusions) as industrial aftermarket materials. After being crushed, these grilles are ground in a hammer mill designed by Mocom. The friction generated by the repeated tapping of the small hammer effectively removed the paint, and then discarded it. The obtained PC and PET composite materials are further processed to produce recycled particles. After the melt filtration in the extrusion step, these recovered materials can be mixed with the raw materials for use.
Thomas Marquardt, General Manager of Sales, Marketing, and Development at Wipag, a subsidiary of Mocom, said, "Our unique technology enables us to produce a high-quality composite material containing recycled plastic that meets the strict requirements for manufacturing radiator grilles. The successful integration of recycled materials into automotive plastic components opens up new opportunities for the entire automotive industry.
*Source: New observations on waste plastics