Materials makers push plastics at Detroit auto show

Detroit — After years of mostly hiding in the wings, plastics stepped in front of the curtains at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Materials maker Covestro LLC had a booth in the AutoMobili-D part of the show, which showcases new and emerging technology; JEC Composites and Continental Structural Plastics Inc. each had space in the lobby of the event, showing various parts and talking to potential customers about their products; and Celanese Corp. paid to have floor mats installed, instructing visitors to download a map that would highlight parts throughout the show that were made with its materials.

All of that was in addition to Magna International, BASF and Denso Corp., which used conference space to meet with customers or have press events.

While suppliers have used the event to launch products and talk to customers, the 2019 show featured material makers pushing the advantages of plastics in the open. The largest presence came from Covestro's booth in the basement of Cobo Hall.

Covestro had a virtual reality headset that showcased the future interior of automobiles, and it pointed to areas where Covestro materials will enhance the experience and make it possible. In addition, the company showed lighting innovations and potential options for automakers to use the car's B-pillar — the section between the front and rear doors — as a design and information aesthetic.

Paul Platte, senior marketing manager for automotive and transportation at Covestro, said with polycarbonate, the B-pillar could be a trim level differenator with it going from something very simple, like a slick piano black look to something extremely high-end like having the automaker's logo, car information and a camera installed.

"The camera is able to sense around the vehicle," he said. "So, it could be used as facial recognition to potentially unlock the vehicle or as we've heard from other people this week, the camera could activate when someone is walking around the vehicle and actually record them. Something similar to what we've seen with home security."

Covestro is exploring the use of texture and illuminated texture, he said, pointing to another display that showed how a surface could look completely different depending on if and how it was illuminated.

"When the lamp is off, what you see is no texture," Platte said. "And when the lamp is lit and it's sideloading LEDs, the texture really pops."

Celanese had floor mats placed near entrances to the show for industry days, when suppliers get a preview of the show, that prompted visitors to download a map to "Discover plastic solutions that drive innovation across the automotive industry." The map pointed to 22 specific vehicles on display telling visitors which part was made with Celanese materials along with the supplier that built the part.

Josh Wimble, marketing communications specialist for global automotive for Celanese, said, in the past, the company would simply take customers around and show them individually but opened that up to a wider audience this year.

"This is the first year that we've made that public. We put it on our website because we want to demonstrate to people we might not reach through our meetings how Celanese is driving innovation across the industry with our extensive thermoplastic portfolio," he said.

In addition to the downloadable map and walk, Celanese also hosted current and potential customers at a nearby hotel with many of those same parts on display.

Robert Haugh, sales director for automotive OEMs for Celanese, said the biggest thing it was trying to feature was the recent "incredible explosion" in the company's portfolio of materials.

"We've had four different acquisitions over the last three years so we've really fleshed out the portfolio that we offer such that we have the absolute, most complete resin portfolio in the industry," he said. "And that lets us access almost any part of the car that can be done in plastics, Celanese can be a great solution provider to bring all those things together under one roof."

And companies weren't just reaching out to engineers. Plastics companies made sure to place themselves in front of designers during the Eyes On Design competition taking place during the auto show. Covestro presented the award for the Best Production Vehicle, blow molder and injection molder ABC Technology presented the award for Best Designed Interior, and Varroc Automotive Lighting sponsored the Best Designed Exterior Lighting award — the first time that award has been given.

And if that wasn't enough, each winner accepted the awards by walking down a red carpet made with Toray Corp.'s Ultrasuede material, made of polyester and polyurethane.