Caption: Unpainted soft skins can now be produced by the familiar technology of injection molding in a little over 1 min, rather than waiting 4-5 min for
slush molding.
These air mats are usually manufactured by
slush molding, involving several steps.
The upper portion of the instrument panel is a padded
slush molding that is separated by the harder plastic lower section by a bright trim strip.
PVC/ABS thermoformed skins for instrument panels (IP) have lost market share to
slush molding and polyurethane spray in both North America and Europe.
Electroformed nickel shells provide good performance in the manufacture of unsupported molds for rotational molding,
slush molding, blow molding, and vacuum forming.
An alternative PVC plasticizer launched by PolyOne Corp., Avon Lake, Ohio, reportedly has performance equivalent to industry workhorse 810TM linear trimellitate plasticizer and is formulated for wire/cable and automotive
slush molding. New SynPlast L9TM, which relies on a linear 9-carbon alcohol, offers abundant supply availability to help counteract historic supply-chain disruptions of 810TM.
The researchers tested a formulation used in injection molding and two powders used in
slush molding, which, though similar to rotational molding, applies only partial biaxial motion during processing.
ACC Molding Systems was established to provide the European Union and neighboring continents with equipment for dip molding, dip coating,
slush molding, flow molding and cast film processing.
Developed in collaboration with Italian TPE compounder SO.F.TER., slush-molded SBC skins can be made on the same equipment as for PVC
slush molding but reportedly are much more efficient, due to lower molding temperature and up to 30% thinner skins.
Also, there is a need for developing better material and a better process for
slush molding TPO skin.
Schulman unveiled a licensed technology for Inteva Products (formerly Delphi Interiors & Closures), which consists of a hybrid TPE for
slush molding IP skins to replace slush-molded TPU or sprayed urethane.
