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Interiors of past vehicles were created to satisfy specific functions with appearance being a secondary consideration, but in the present & future market with ever increasing vehicle luxury, decoration of vehicle has become a prime focus in automobile industry along with the safety & economy. Automotive interiors have evolved over the years from a collection of trims covering bare sheet metal panels to add quality & richness of interior cabin, ultimately delivering greater value to customers. One such area in interiors is Side door trims serving the dual purpose of functionality and creating a pleasing environment too. The aesthetic appeal to the Side door trim is added usually through a Door trim insert having a decorative skin pasted on to the plastic base. And the selection of pasting technique for pasting decorative film on to the plastic base insert is a challenge for an automotive interior designer.

Plastics nowadays are playing a vital role in the ongoing innovation that is driving the automotive industry to higher performance, safety and sustainability levels. Plastics have allowed automotive designers to meet stringent carbon emission targets and fulfill consumer demands for highly fuel efficient vehicles by reducing vehicle weight while also reducing cost. The next step in weight reduction is to decrease the plastic part thickness further to the minimum possible. But with such reduction in part thickness, it becomes very difficult to meet the side impact crash regulations, and thus it becomes imperative to increase the Impact properties of such light weight materials. Keeping in line with the above, this paper describes the development of a new blend of Polypropylene which has high impact characteristics to meet crash compliance, high MFR to reduce cycle time and allow for easy filling of low thickness parts and keeping specific gravity in check to reduce weight.