Purdue News
Purdue News
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May 5, 1998
New technology benefits automotive industryWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A tiny form of carbon and a Purdue University-based agency are helping the automotive industry save money, increase production and reduce air pollution.The tiny tubes of crystalline carbon, or graphite, are called "fibrils," and they may save one Indiana manufacturer hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs of some of its plastic car parts. When small amounts of fibrils, which are one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, are incorporated into plastic, the plastic becomes electrically conductive. Using conductive plastics allows for direct electrostatic painting, which wastes less paint and significantly reduces in the emission of hazardous air pollutants. UT Automotive's Berne, Ind. , facility was the first factory in the nation to use fibril-filled plastics in a painting application. The company manufactures and paints exterior mirror and trim components for the automotive industry. The company was introduced to fibril technology with the help of the Indiana Clean Manufacturing Technology and Safe Materials Institute, a state-supported engineering group at Purdue that helps Indiana manufacturers improve manufacturing efficiency. From 10 a.m. to noon on May 27, the institute will sponsor a public showcase of the technology at the Indiana Government Center's South Auditorium, 402 W. Washington St., Indianapolis. Participants will include representatives from the institute, UT Automotive, GE Plastics and Hyperion Catalysis International. Events will include a videotaped demonstration of electrostatic painting and exhibits of fibril-filled plastics, painted parts and application equipment. When UT Automotive approached the institute in 1995 about potential pollution prevention opportunities for the company's painting operations, staff at the institute investigated the availability of new conductive plastics technologies. Electrostatic painting is a highly efficient way of applying exterior finishes to auto parts, but it requires that a part be conductive, as metal parts are. Plastic parts, such as automotive exterior trim components, are nonconductive and must have a conductive primer coat applied to them before they can be painted electrostatically. In their search of applicable technologies, staff at the Purdue-based institute identified Hyperion Catalysis International of Cambridge, Mass., which developed the technology for making fibrils and the special techniques for compounding them into plastics. GE Plastics, based in Pittsfield, Mass., uses the fibril technology to make electrically conductive plastics. The institute's staff shared its findings with UT Automotive, and the company began using GE conductive plastic in the exterior mirrors on the 1997 Ford Taurus/Sable. UT Automotive is the first company to make fibril-filled plastic parts available to automotive companies. "It's our objective to support our customer's efforts to develop breakthrough technologies that produce environmentally friendly cars and trucks," said Scott Greer, president of UT Automotive. "Often, pollution prevention strategies are too costly to implement because of higher materials costs and the lengthy auto manufacturer qualification and specification processes. However, with the reduction of paints and the more efficient process, we believe the Berne facility can recognize a significant cost savings while helping our customers and the environment." In its tests of the conductive plastic mirror casings, UT Automotive found that the paint durability was equal to the finish on primed mirror casings. Also, the company projects that it will go from painting 80 mirror casings per gallon of color paint to 290 per gallon when it has converted completely to conductive plastics and automated electrostatic painting. With the widespread use of conductive technology, the company can potentially reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants by an estimated 80 tons per year, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs, said Darrin Keiser, UT Automotive's paint business unit manager at the Berne facility. The automotive industry spends more than $8 billion in the United States and $20 billion or more globally on painting automobile exteriors, said Venkatakrisnan Umamaheswaran, industry manager for exterior components at GE Plastics. Improving the efficiency of the painting process and lowering the amount of paint used is an important economic incentive, because exterior automotive paint can cost more than $100 a gallon, he said.
Sources: Alice Smith, Indiana Clean Manufacturing Technology
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