JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - 108

SOLUTlONS automotive

Hemp in your car
Always in the vanguard of innovation, Faurecia Interior Systems has given
priority to the use of biosourced materials for the past twenty years, and
works with natural fibres like flax or hemp.

F

rance is Europe's leading
producer of hemp, a hardy
plant that requires neither
pesticides nor irrigation systems
and is easy to work with. Hemp
fibres can help reduce the weight
of a part and also improve the
environmental protection. This
is why, after serving to make
clothes during the Middle Ages,
to print Gutenberg's first Bible
and banknotes, to make ropes,
sails and cigarette paper, hemp
has made its entrance into
automotive plastics processing.
It helps gain weight for automotive parts, therefore reducing
CO2 emissions, and promote
independence from oil-based
products.
NaFiLean
Faurecia, a leader in automotive
equipement, and Interval, an
Agricultural Cooperative which

grows, harvests and defibrates
2,000 hectares of industrial hemp
in Burgundy, France, have created Automotive Performance
Materials (APM), a 50/50
joint-venture to develop the
NAFILean innovation (Natural
Fibers for Lean Injection).
NAFILean is a compound of
polypropylene and hemp fibres.
It is produced by APM. Faurecia
uses this compound to produce
structural automotive parts.
NAFILean is the only injectable
material made from natural
fibres. The joint-venture guarantees full control over the value
chain, facilitating traceability,
quality and adherence to specifications that are demanding
in terms of strength, stiffness,
durability, weight and recycling.
Faurecia & APM's flagship
innovation, NAFILean, has been
in production for the door panels
of the Peugeot 308 since 2013,
and for the instrument panel

structural part of the Alfa Romeo
Giulia in the Spring of 2016 and
recently for the Renault Megane
instrument panel. NAFILite™,
the follow-up innovation of
NAFILean, is a combination
between microcellular foaming
process by injection (with
mould opening technology) and
the already existing NAFILean™
material grade. NAFILite™,
enables a breakthrough weight
saving of 30% versus the current
market reference for injected
structural parts in automotive
interior, as Instrument Panels. It
offers a better perceived quality
and excellent thermo-mechanical properties versus standard
materials, while enabling 30%
environmental impact reduction.
As proof of the general resolve to
reduce weight through the use
of composite materials, APM's
sales increased in 2016, with a
potential of 800 metric tons of
pellets for plastics injection. The
company will soon set up busi-

Structural parts of
the Alfa Romeo Giulia's
dahsboard made of
biocomposites

108

jec composites magazine / N°111 March 2017

ness in China, the world's largest
hemp producer, and is planning
to go to the United States as well.
Flaxpreg
Faurecia's research for smart natural materials led to Flaxpreg, a
flax-fibre based material. Besides
its environmental advantages
and its "naturalness" that so appeals to many people, flax has
very advantageous mechanical
and acoustic properties: it is very
resistant over the long term, and
it damps vibrations.
Flaxpreg is a "sandwich" with flax
veils around a cardboard structure. It can be used to produce
car trunk floors that perform
as well or even better than the
fibreglass traditionally used.
These innovative trunk floors
have higher thermal resistance,
a better strength-to-weight ratio,
and up to 30% weight reduction
for the structure (or the part) - a
key factor.
Minimizing pollutant emissions
is a must for the automotive
industry, as regulatory standards
are becoming more and more
stringent. Always in the vanguard
in terms of R&D, Faurecia is
complying by designing and
developing disruptive technological solutions for cars that
consume and pollute less - for
both the present and the future.
More information:
www.faurecia.com
http://www.faurecia.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World
