Improved Performance

SABIC intro­duced SABIC PP com­pound G3430X and SABIC PP com­pound G3440X grades, two new short-glass fiber-rein­forced polypropy­lene (PP) com­pounds offer­ing enhanced per­for­mance and pro­cess­ing for demand­ing auto­mo­tive under-hood, exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or appli­ca­tions. The two advanced grades sur­pass high-per­form­ing stan­dard short-glass fiber mate­ri­als in melt flow, ten­sile and flex­ur­al strength, and flex­ur­al mod­u­lus. SABIC PP com­pound G3430X and G3440X grades give cus­tomers new oppor­tu­ni­ties to raise the per­for­mance bar for auto­mo­tive struc­tur­al com­po­nents such as brack­ets, seat struc­tures and cen­ter con­soles. Fur­ther­more, thanks to their thin-wall capa­bil­i­ty, both mate­ri­als can be used to design parts with low­er mass and weight.

“SABIC’s world-class devel­op­ment capa­bil­i­ties and ded­i­ca­tion to con­tin­u­ous port­fo­lio improve­ment have yield­ed these two excep­tion­al mate­ri­als, which can empow­er auto­mo­tive cus­tomers to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase the per­for­mance of end appli­ca­tions,” said Abdul­lah Al-Otaibi, gen­er­al man­ag­er, ETP & Mar­ket Solu­tions, SABIC. “The launch of these new SABIC PP com­pounds is an excel­lent exam­ple of our proac­tive response to cus­tomers’ emerg­ing needs. We have set new indus­try bench­marks for robust per­for­mance and thin-wall capa­bil­i­ties in short glass fiber polypropy­lene, pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal advan­tages in the face of esca­lat­ing auto­mo­tive requirements.”

Improved Per­for­mance

SABIC PP com­pound G3430X grade, with 30 per­cent short glass fiber, and SABIC PP com­pound G3440X grade, with 40 per­cent, deliv­er supe­ri­or phys­i­cal prop­er­ties ver­sus con­ven­tion­al short glass fiber PP mate­ri­als and high melt flow for easy pro­cess­ing. Both grades deliv­er an excel­lent bal­ance of stiff­ness and impact for opti­mal per­for­mance in struc­tur­al parts, with SABIC PP com­pound G3440X pro­vid­ing a high­er degree of stiff­ness and greater den­si­ty than the SABIC PP com­pound G3430X grade. In addi­tion to offer­ing supe­ri­or per­for­mance com­pared to oth­er short glass fiber PP com­pounds, these mate­ri­als may be can­di­dates for the cost-effec­tive replace­ment of long glass fiber PP in cer­tain low-tem­per­a­ture applications.

Com­bined with excep­tion­al stiff­ness and very good impact prop­er­ties, the high melt flow of these mate­ri­als offers oppor­tu­ni­ties to design thin-wall com­po­nents to reduce weight with­out com­pro­mis­ing over­all part performance.

Besides help­ing to improve over­all per­for­mance of the vehi­cle, reduc­ing weight may also con­tribute to cost sav­ings through the use of less mate­r­i­al. Fur­ther­more, cost ben­e­fits can accrue from high­er pro­duc­tiv­i­ty asso­ci­at­ed with faster cycle times, which can be enabled by high­er flow.

Both SABIC PP com­pounds are avail­able in stan­dard black and nat­ur­al and can be cus­tom colored.