It is understood that developed countries use the number of plastics for automobiles as an important indicator to measure the level of automobile design and manufacturing. The amount of plastic used in each vehicle has increased from 100-130kg in the 1990s to 152kg in 2004 and 174kg in 2006. Now The dosage is 230kg. At present, Germany uses the most cars, accounting for more than 15% of the vehicle materials.

foot-pad-in-a-car
PVC foot pad in a car
plastic parts of a car
plastic parts of an automobile

However, the use of plastic does not mean to reduce the safety of the vehicle. According to reports, in the part of energy absorption, most mainstream models still use metal parts. Plastic energy absorbing parts also need a lot of tests to collect data and confirm the feasibility.

There are more and more plastic parts in cars today. Experts predict that by 2022, the average plastic consumption of automobiles will probably reach 500kg/unit or more, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total vehicle materials.

Today’s cars have already covered a large number of plastic parts, such as bumpers, wheel covers, license plates, dashboards, door panels, knobs, and even hoods and air intake systems, all using plastic parts.
“General plastics have a specific gravity of 0.9 to 1.6, and the proportion of glass fiber reinforced composites will not exceed 2.0, while A3 steel is 7.6, brass is 8.4, and aluminum is 2.7. This makes plastic the preferred material for automotive light-weighting. The use of plastics can reduce the weight of parts by about 40%, and the cost can be greatly reduced,” said Gao Wei, an engineer at the Materials Engineering Institute of Beiqi Futian Engineering Research Institute.

Plastic pellet extruder
plastic pellet extruder


With the continuous innovation of materials, the concept of lightweight vehicles has become more and more intense under the current trend of energy-saving and emission reduction. In addition to the carbon fiber that can effectively reduce weight, cheaper plastics are beginning to slowly replace the precious metal parts. Some family cars are slowly gaining popularity. As a result, plastic waste can be generated in a very large number, so plastic recycling machines will become more and more popular.