BASF, L&L Products, Flex-N-Gate and Toyota have won the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Automotive Innovation Award with the composite seatback design on the 2022 Toyota Tundra.
The seat structure is 20% lighter compared to the previous model. This application also won the Altair Enlighten Award in August.
“This award is a validation of pultrusion composite technology and how it helps us achieve our lightweighting and cost objectives. Thank you SPE for this honor,” said Vik Bhatia, group manager for engineering design chassis at Toyota.
This is the first interior application to use L&L Products Continuous Composite Systems (CCS) technology with BASF’s polyurethane pultrusion system Elastocoat 74850. CCS is a fibre-reinforced composite carrier with highly engineered sealants and adhesives in a two-dimensional profile. It was overmoulded with BASF’s Ultramid B3ZG7 CR, an impact modified polyamide 6, to create the 3D share of the 60% seatback.
“Toyota wanted greater functionality with their seating system and we were able to accomplish that by taking an all-steel assembly that contained 60 stamped and welded parts and integrating it into four composite parts, “said Hank Richardson, product engineering manager, L&L Products.
“The distinctive design of the injection overmolded pultruded beam in the seat structure passed all relevant crash test requirements and makes pultrusion technology a clear choice for lightweight, cost-effective solutions and integrated functionality,” said Kipp Grumm, technology leader for thermoplastic composites, performance materials, BASF Corporation.
