Natural fiber-reinforced plastics among Enlighten Award winners - Plastics News

— A natural fiber-reinforced plastic automotive technology was among winners of the third-annual Altair Enlighten Award, created to recognize innovation in automotive weight reduction. Faurecia SA, along with Automotive Performance Materials, its joint venture with French agricultural cooperative Interval, was named second runner-up for the hemp-reinforced plastic instrument panels, center consoles and door panels in PSA... The technology achieved weight savings of 20 to 25 percent compared to a standard plastic, according to Altair. First place was awarded to Ford Motor Co. for its F-150 pickup, using high-strength aluminum alloys and other technologies to achieve weight savings of 700 pounds. First runner-up was General Motors Co. , for its use of computer-aided engineering methods to save 163 pounds on the 2012 Cadillac ATS/CTS. Plastics were well represented among the award nominees, which included a thermoplastic lift-gate using material from Trinseo SA, appearing in 2015 Renault Espace, and carbon fiber composite grille opening reinforcements on Ford Shelby GT 350... The 3-year-old Altair Enlighten Award had a total of 17 nominations this year, the growth emblematic of a growing emphasis on lightweighting, said Dave Mason, vice president of global automotive at Altair. As part of its business, which includes using simulation technology to optimize designs, Altair has been involved with automotive lightweighting for decades, Mason said. Source: www.plasticsnews.com