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Pressures to increase the recyclable and recycled content of passenger vehicles are accelerating. In Europe, there is interest in eliminating halogenated polymers. Globally, more and more concern is focused on materials and methods that are ecologically friendly. Automakers and their suppliers are being encouraged to design and assemble components in new ways to facilitate separation, identification, and resource recovery at the end of the vehicle’s useful life - something that is not only good for the environment, but also the bottom line. One area of the vehicle that has proved challenging for applying such design for disassembly and recycling (DFD/R) principles has been the interior, owing to the sheer number of materials used there, and the great number of laminate structures that make disassembly nearly impossible. A good example is a door panel inner, which typically consists of a rigid plastic substrate, a foam pad, and a vinyl, leather, or cloth covering.

Olefin foam laminates are an interesting and cost-effective new materials option that can enhance design flexibility as well as improve manufacturing efficiencies and durability of padded interior-trim components, such as instrument panels and door-trim panels, headliners, seat backs, package shelves, and consoles, etc. In order to better understand the contributions of skin and foam material properties to the overall physical properties of the laminate, a study was undertaken at Visteon, an enterprise of Ford Motor Company. To prepare for testing, a number of different skin/foam laminate combinations were produced. The laminates were formed from 0.6-mm-thick PVC skins and foams from 2 different olefin families - a family specifically formulated for low-pressure molding operations and a family specifically formulated for vacuum forming. Within each family of materials, a matrix of 3 different foam thickness and 3 different foam density combinations were represented.

Considerable changes are occurring in automotive interior components in terms of design, aesthetics, and performance expectations. Consequently, new combinations of materials and production methods are being evaluated to meet these changing demands and requirements. One promising example of this is the use of a lightly cross-linked, olefin-blend foam sheetstock for many of the most visible interior padded trim components: door panels, instrument panels, consoles, glove-box/airbag doors, and seatbacks. Olefin foam sheet has a versatile processing profile using any of several interior-trim molding processes, including low-pressure molding, vacuum forming, compression molding, and structural reaction injection molding. In addition, the olefin foam offers excellent formability, with potential overall reduction of processing steps and systems costs.