100% recyclable RENOLIT TECNOGOR composite sheet production starts in India for automotive interior market

The installation of the new line in Pune was celebrated at the official inauguration event earlier in the year attended by COO Dr. Axel Bruder from the RENOLIT Group Executive Board, CEO Fabrizio Carello and CFO Mauro Piccolo from RENOLIT GOR S.p.A., and Rahul Chivate, General Manager of APPL GOR Plastics India.

A key feature of the new production line design is the inclusion of RENOLIT’s patented extrusion processing technology for manufacturing the innovative, new, 100% recyclable, RENOLIT TECNOGOR glass fiber (GF) reinforced, PP based, lightweight thermoplastic composite material. High quality 3D trim parts can be consistantly thermoformed in a high productivity ‘glue free’ one-step-process, which reduces production costs.

Thanks to the unique production process, RENOLIT TECNOGOR has superior stiffness and impact performance. The patented fiber embedding extrusion technique also makes RENOLIT TECNOGOR a clean, very safe material to use on the shop floor and handle post moulding. This is because all the glass fibers are completely encapsulated in the PP polymer matrix during extrusion, so there are no free floating fibers in the air during lay up or exposed on the moulded part surface. This will be a major safety benefit to customers in the Indian market, which currently mainly uses glass fiber mats to produce composite moulded parts.

Technical director of RENOLIT COMPOSITES Adriano Odino, who headed up the installation project commented: “The local engineering team did a great job installing and commissioning the new line and the highly skilled blue collar workforce quickly learnt how to efficiently produce all the grades that the new line can extrude to RENOLIT’s stringent specifications and quality assurance standards. The new line in Pune is now fully operational and open for business.”

The versatile new line can not only produce RENOLIT TECNOGOR, but also RENOLIT DEEP-STOCK, RENOLIT FLEXIGOR plus RENOLIT WOOD-STOCK which was the only RENOLIT product manufactured in India until now. “For many years we could only offer the classic RENOLIT WOOD-STOCK sheet range. We are very pleased to be able to now offer our clients a wider range of sustainable products which offer solutions to real problems the market is facing using traditional glass fiber mats”, said Rahul Chivate, General Manager of APPL GOR Plastics India. The RENOLIT COMPOSITES products now being produced in India are primarily aimed at Tier 1 thermoformers supplying automotive OEMs in India and Asia Pacific. They offer vehicle producers a safer and more environmentally friendly material solutions to cost effectively fabricate, automotive trim parts.

RENOLIT TECNOGOR has gained a leading position in the global automotive interiors market with leading German, Italian, French and Japanese car markers for a variety of thermoformed, custom coated, vehicle interior 3D trim parts including parcel shelves, load floors, seat back covers, dashboard inserts and trunk trims. For other interior and exterior vehicle applications, such as door inserts, map pockets, trunk side trims and wheel arch liners, RENOLIT FLEXIGOR has been supplied to the thermoformer with a customer specified aesthetic surface fabric applied to either one or both sides as required. RENOLIT FLEXIGOR is a highly thermoformable, low VOC, lightweight composite material based on polyolefin and renewable natural/ mineral raw material fillers, so is sustainable as well as being a fully recyclable product.

For more information about RENOLIT TECNOGOR and the full range of products available from RENOLIT COMPOSITES visit www.renolit-tecnogor.com or www.renolit.com/composites.