The 2015 Workshop, organized by SAPA Group together with some partners and suppliers at the Museo dell’Automobile in Turin, was the occasion to present new products developed and patented by the Group to solve some of the critical issues of its customers in the automotive sector
It was also a pleasant opportunity to give our guests an exclusive visit to the National Museum of the Automobile
Among the main products and solutions presented, some concerned the construction of engine covers and the screen printing and decoration of the internal plastic parts of motor cars and engine covers.
In particular, the biggest problems our customers find for engine covers are:
- the height of the components and the size below the cover that are bound to the engine type
- for some covers, the undercover thickness prevents the insertion of soundproofing and heat-resistant materials
- there is therefore a need to develop new technical solutions to reduce noise and cope with high engine temperatures
At the 2015 Workshop SAPA Group introduced the Soundproof Cover in PUR and Preox with 3 precise goals:
- Aesthetic and design value of the product
- Engine noise reduction
- Thermal resistance
The results were obtained thanks to the patented SAPA co-molding with an acoustic abatement both at high and low frequencies, the most important ones in the case of diesel engines.
A more economically more advantageous solution than inserting multiple layers of preox, which, at low frequencies, is less efficient.
Also in screen printing to customize plastic parts (especially covers) our customers find a number of limitations and disadvantages: the surface of the piece to be coated should be flat and this type of machining has particularly high costs.
During the 2015 Workshop we presented a new solution to these issues thanks to In Mold Decoration: a three-dimensional decoration system through a special injection process in plastics.
Below you will find the 3 steps of the process.
In Mold Decoration is a process not applicable to all materials, but the solution found in SAPA Group has been researching, analyzing and testing different materials available on the market that has allowed to identify a particular film that fits perfectly with the needs of the production.
With these goals we achieved:
- A reduction in costs and time of implementation
- A high aesthetic value
- A flexibility in design
- A resistance to scratches and solvents
- A versatility of the objects produced
- A more ecological process than screen printing
