SABIC Innovative Plastics is putting a new spin on the traditional steering wheel with an injection-moulded design featuring its Lexan* EXL copolymer resin. The benefits include weight out, high performance, manufacturing ease, styling freedom and parts integration provided by this innovative new steering wheel concept. Importantly, Lexan EXL resin avoids key environmental drawbacks of existing steering wheels, whose materials can be difficult to recycle and involve potentially hazardous waste products from casting and processing.

‘It’s high time for a new direction in steering wheel design and SABIC Innovative Plastics has made a 180-degree turn with the two-part moulded design,’ said V.Umamaheswaran, Director of Products and Marketing, SABIC Innovative Plastics. ‘Tough new demands on steering wheels, from integration of features to safety and weight-out require an entirely new approach. We’re excited to launch this breakthrough injection-moulded design featuring our innovative Lexan polycarbonate copolymer resin material and are confident that the auto steering wheel is entering a new era.’

Typical steering wheels are comprised of a die-cast magnesium or aluminum armature overmoulded with flexible urethane foam. This creates a solid rim section with no package space for integration of electronic components. Additionally, the soft polyurethane makes structural attachment of components impractical. This approach also restricts styling possibilities such as advanced shapes and innovative aesthetics.

In addition to meeting these challenges, updated steering wheel design needed, improved energy management for head and torso impacts, net weight-out even with the addition of integrated components, durability and long service life, avoidance of secondary operations and overall system cost reductions.

Lexan EXL glass-filled polycarbonatesiloxane copolymer resin provides excellent stiffness and a high degree of impact over a very wide temperature range. SABIC Innovative Plastics has developed two designs; a two-part injection moulded design with a leather wrap as a high-end solution and a one-piece injection-moulded
armature with a polyurethane overmoulding. Both are attached to the steering column with a small metal hub. They have been shown to cut system costs by upto 20 per cent and reduce mass by upto 40 per cent compared to a magnesium or aluminum alloy steering wheel. Both designs also provide other benefits like in the two-piece
design, the space created by the hollow rim and spokes enables integration of damping and sensing technology, switch housings, wiring and other functionality inside the steering wheel.

Injection moulding Lexan EXL copolymer resin is a more environmentally responsible process than die-casting magnesium alloy as it reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions dramatically. Compared to die casting 1.1 kg of magnesium alloy, which generates nearly 70 kg of carbon dioxide, manufacturing 1.0 kg of Lexan EXL copolymer resin only generates 7.6 kg, about one-tenth the emissions.

For further details please contact:
SABIC Innovative Plastics, Europe
Web: www.sabic-ip.com