The major players of the sector gathered in istanbul for the 6th edition of the world automotive conference. Reducing waste, emissions and costs: this is the common challenge. Sapa was one of the speakers: big success and great interest in the One-shot® Method and the Life BIOBCOMPO project
This is possibly one of the best moments in the history of car part technology.
The World Automotive Conference 2019 reinforced this idea, which is an incentive and a responsibility at the same time.
Do you agree?
Before you answer, please follow me in my reasoning.
I started from the end, but I want to share with you the ideas that led me to this conclusion.
The major players of the automotive sector gathered in Istanbul for the WAC 2019 to discuss, determine and overcome the boundaries of our industry the way we know it today.
SAPA was there, too. We had the pleasure and the honour of being among the speakers and we shared the stage with highly prestigious speakers like the top managers of Renault and Bosch among others.
“Industry 4.0 – a choice or a necessity?”
This question, which is maybe somewhat provocative, that was asked by the organisers of the WAC 2019 was the occasion to share the solutions that the One-Shot® Method is capable of offering to the increasingly urgent issues that the market presents us with.
You know what these issues are, and the WAC 2019 proved that they are common issues among all car makers.
No, you are not the only one that gets a headache every day by struggling with:
- Imperfections due to the production process not having been innovated;
- Delays in the delivery of the parts;
- Human errors linked to distraction or tiredness;
- New part weight requirements mandated by Horizon 2020;
- Long production chain that requires several phases.
- And many more issues that I’m sure you’ve had to face.
It was engineer Mr Alfonso Molaro from our Innovation Engineering department that presented our solutions and our vision of the present and future of the automotive sector in front of over 800 participants from all over the world.
The video says it best.
The future holds standardised processes, ultra-high performance components (in terms of weight, mechanics and materials) and – as usual in the history of cars, at low costs.
Those who will be able to take advantage of these changes will have a considerable competitive advantage.
We are living in a time full of opportunities.
The golden age of the automotive industry? Some might say it is. I was taught to consider big problems as big opportunities.
Engineer Mr Molaro in his speech explained why the One-Shot® Method is the gold nugget that you are looking for.
The One-Shot® Method was created to compress all the phases of the traditional car part production methods into just one, all-in-one method. Just one production unit, less waste and less manpower.
The advantages that we obtained thanks to the One-Shot® Method can be summarised in one formula:
- LESS TIME
- LESS WEIGHT
- LESS WASTE
- MORE QUALITY
- AND LESS COSTS
Our Innovation Engineering department worked towards creating a method that is not linked to just one part but that can be applied to any kind of part requirement.
Every part has its own story. We believe that our objective should be to maximise its strengths and minimise its more challenging aspects.
The One-Shot® Method has precisely this great feature: it is not a solution for just one problem. It is indeed a method; hence it is versatile, transferable and customisable.
The WAC 2019 was also the occasion to present the progress made within the LIFE BIOBCOMPO project, which has the objective of reducing CO2 emissions by lightweighting internal and external thermoplastic parts by 8%.
By 30th June 2021, SAPA will reduce CO2 emissions per KM by 1.23kg, thanks to the use of new composite materials.
Materials will undergo some changes; I will quote three as an example:
- Less density;
- Replacing the traditional fillers with traditional fibres (bio-based fillers);
- Use of chemical or physical blowing agents.
The use of innovative and more sustainable materials in comparison to the ones used traditionally has a direct positive effect:
- The new compounds have better processability and cycle time and waste are no bigger than with the traditional production process;
- Aesthetics is improved thanks to the optimisation of the mixing process and of the moulding phases;
- Mechanical performance is improved thanks to the selection of higher performance fillers than with the traditional methods.
All this is in line with the Horizon 2020 objectives.
We specialise in processes, in particular of polymers and high-performance polymers.
At the moment, there are no better solutions in terms of cost and of design and industrial capabilities than plastic, for any kind of technology.
In particular, the One- method Shot® Method is the premium level among design and industrial methods, because it reduces the number of production steps and it massively increases productivity.
By carrying out and funding research on more environmentally friendly solutions that aim at avoiding waste, we stood by an idea that is very important for our company, i.e. that research is essential to modern development.
All this convinced me of the fact that we are living in one of the best periods in automotive history.
And this is what we shared with the many outstanding participants in the WAC 2019 and that we’d like to share with you now.
Kind regards
Giovanni Affinita,
Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors at SAPA
