Luxus provides interior recycled grades for car manufacturers
A UK-based compounds solution provider is set to showcase its thermoplastic polymers at an upcoming trade show.
Luxus will exhibit its products for the global automotive, grocery retail logistics and waste management sectors at PDM, which takes place on June 18 and 19, 2013.
Luxus says it was the first UK producer to develop interior recycled grades for car manufacturers and has continued its evolutionary path by developing what it claims are leading edge solutions to satisfy increasingly diverse market needs which will be illustrated on its stand at PDM this year.
A study from AT Kearney, ‘Plastics, The Future For Automotive & Chemical Companies’, has forecast that ‘over the next decade plastics will comprise up to 18 per cent of the average vehicle weight, up from 14 percent in 2000.
Peter Atterby, Managing Director, Luxus said: “In response to a tough economic climate car manufacturers have to develop vehicles that are not only affordable, but also comply with increasing stringent regulations which means materials development has been brought into sharp focus.
“For example we have developed Hycolene, a lightweight polymer that will significantly lower the weight of the average car and CO2 emissions. Hycolene has been designed to replace standard talc filled grades for car interior components, offering reduced filler content without compromising on either performance or design. It also delivers excellent scratch resistance to improve the driver’s experience and a high recycled content of up to 60 per cent, so it’s sustainable too.”
Hycolene™ has already achieved its first stage approval with a number of automakers and was presented by invitation at the international auto conference VDI recently. Luxus is now expanding its marketing of this product into other areas where light-weighting is important for aesthetic and environmental efficiency reasons.
Its development is the result of 30 years auto industry expertise and the company’s unique in-house Technical Centre, which is being significantly expanded into a new facility opening this summer.
Research is also being undertaken to find a solution to meet an entirely different market need. Luxus has been offering a ’closed loop’ recycling service for large grocery retailers for some years now to sustainably manage their ‘end of life’ bread baskets. It had become increasingly apparent that bread basket loss and theft is a major concern resulting in significant costs.
Luxus is now working to address this issue by introducing new additives to its polymers for leading UK baker, Allied Bakeries. The aim is that the bread baskets will be easier to trace if lost or made less desirable to secondary materials markets.
Atterby added: “It’s our aim to continue our evolution by offering the markets we support progressive solutions that deliver strong performance, cost and sustainability benefits for all our clients.”