Leading global automobile producer General Motors has recently introduced two parts (Bumper fascia and rocker panels) in five of their new car models. Unlike past usage of paint replacement film on parts, GM has chosen a thick thermoformed sheet. With the bumpers, not only did the companies eliminate the need to paint a plastic part, they also replaced an injection-molded part with thermoforming. The thick-sheet thermoforming reduces the number of manufacturing steps, which shortens development time and cuts costs, as the tooling for thermoforming is less expensive than standard injection-molding tooling.

GM first used a thermoformed sheet that combined a thermoplastic polyolefin base with a body-color film on a stone shield for its Chevrolet SSR pickup. Soon the roads will see the Chevrolet HHR wagon's stone shields and the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac STS-V's thermoformed rocker panels as well as the GMC Envoy's thermoformed bumper fascia. GM is targeting specific applications on each vehicle it has selected for its paint-replacement project. In the case of the HHR, the company needed to protect a fender area of the car where stones from road debris would chip away the paint on a standard part. GM and its suppliers had to design a shield that would stand up to the damage but also precisely mimic the shape of the vehicle, sitting flush with the body.

Prior to this technology, the automotive sector had started switching over to In-mold decoration (IMD). IMD with formable films is a quick, efficient and relatively low-cost way to impart colors and Class-A finishes on injection-molded plastic automotive parts on standard thermoforming and injection molding equipment, making it less capital-intensive than painting stations. By molding in all requisite features, automobile OEMs can reduce the number of steps required to produce finished parts.

Only the future will decide whether this new development in thick-sheet thermoforming succeeds and leads to a complete changeover in the automotive sector.