Material for plastic EA with living hinge

[Chr1s]

Is there a plastic out there that works well for a front fascia energy absorber, that can also handle a living hinge molded into it. It only needs to hinge a couple of times.

Thanks,

 

[wbrokow1]

Bayer Texin 285,texin 985, desmopan

 

[sean01]

Chris,

There are a number of materials available to you, depending on the type of fascia you are designing.

If the fascia is a 'soft touch' type, you will naturally get energy absorption from the foam join between the substrate and the TPO/TPE skin. Depending on your requirements you can alter the thickness of foam or density and you should be ok. With this type of fascia, a living hinge can be achieved by altering the section to only consist of TPO/TPE - or even substrate such as PP or PE.

If your fascia isn't a soft touch type - your options get a little more limited - the best way is to design an energy absorber into the component - since this will always be better than just relying on the material properties. I've seen a couple of materials used for this including PP and HDPE, I can't say if either of these worked in practice however.

Depending on the resource available to you, benchmarking against competitors models is always a good option - as well as asking the material manufacturers themselves. Getting the material manufacturers on-board with the design early will always pay dividends later !!!

hope this helps


sean