SABIC to increase Belgian LGFPP capacity to meet rising automotive customer demand

SABIC’s Innovative Plastics announced that it is significantly boosting capacity for its STAMAX long glass fiber-filled polypropylene (LGFPP) composite resins at its manufacturing facility in Genk, Belgium, to meet rapidly growing demand from automotive customers. Last month, the company began work on a new production line – slated to open in H2-2013 – to further its ability to provide a secure and reliable local supply of this high-performance SABIC material. The LGFPP composite resins give customers a robust combination of properties, while enabling exceptional light weight to provide the potential to improve fuel efficiency and cut emissions. This lighter weight allows for a significantly enhanced carbon and energy footprint over the life of a car or truck compared with traditional materials. The Genk capacity expansion demonstrates SABIC’s commitment to automotive customers worldwide and their need for high-performance sustainable solutions that will enable them to design and produce next-generation vehicles. Leon Jacobs, Innovative Plastics’ Automotive leader in Europe say, “It took only two years before we needed to scale up with this new, state-of-the-art production line because our STAMAX composite resins have become a material of choice for a growing number of automotive applications. STAMAX composite resins give customers outstanding value, especially by assisting in meeting toughening automotive design requirements, reducing overall system costs and increasing sustainability. By providing our customers with an expanded supply of this versatile, high-quality material – in combination with our world-class application development services – we are further able to help them differentiate their products and grow.” The properties and performance of these composite resins make a significant contribution to reduced environmental impact, especially compared to the use of other materials. STAMAX LGFPP composite resins offer several advantages over other materials in automotive applications. Compared to steel, SABIC composite resins are light in weight, do not corrode and facilitate parts integration that can streamline the vehicle assembly process. This high-performance SABIC material also provides excellent strength and dimensional stability, high flow for thin-wall structural components and exceptional design freedom. In addition, STAMAX composite resins provide high heat deflection temperatures, high stiffness, low thermal expansion and low creep.