By CRM Staff
Toronto, Ontario – July 18, 2018 — Magna International took home three first-place awards during the 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Automotive Awards gala earlier this month in Germany, according to Canadian Plastics.
The Ontario-based company was recognized with a first place finish in the body exterior category, for its thermoplastic liftgate on the 2019 Jeep Cherokee.
“These liftgate modules achieve up to 25 percent mass savings over steel versions and are delivered as complete assemblies to the customer,” Magna said in a statement. “Composite materials allow for greater design flexibility with deeper draws and tighter radii. Additional benefits of its full-system assembly and delivery approach include reduced complexity of the total liftgate module, lower tooling investment, and increased throughput at the assembly plant,” Magna said.
In the enabling technology category Magna came out on top with its thin-wall torsional welding process.
“Torsional welding joins plastic brackets to thermoplastic fascia with a high-speed twisting motion that creates enough friction-based heat to meld them together,” Magna said. “Working with a technology partner, [we] became the first to use torsional welding for automotive fascia. The process is currently used for the front fascia of the 2017 Skoda Octavia in Europe, and there are plans to use it soon in the North American market.”
To wrap things up Magna won the chassis category for its carbon fibre subframe.
