Lightweight innovations: SEKISUI's impact on efficiency and sustainability across industries
From car interiors to shoe soles to packaging – plastic is found in many things we use every day. Although this often goes unseen and unnoticed in most applications, there are key differences in the plastic used to watch out for. One decisive factor that plays an important role for SEKISUI: the lightweight nature of the materials.
Lightweight, high-performance, and durable plastics open-up new possibilities in product design and contribute to better sustainability measures in both production and in-person usage. In the development and usage of lightweight materials it's not just about avoiding unnecessary weight – it's also about conserving resources and energy needed to produce them, which in turn saves manufacturing and operating costs. Through its materials, SEKISUI is actively helping to shape the industry with lightweight construction as a key player. Already today, many products include what we call “lightweight hidden champions”.
Lightweight hidden champions for various industries
SEKISUI's Advancell EM product consists of tiny plastic beads containing a low-boiling liquid hydrocarbon in a thermoplastic polymer shell. These shells soften when heated, causing the hydrocarbon to expand, making the plastic particularly light without any sacrifice to the quality. Advancell is used primarily in the construction industry for engineered wood, often used in interior finishes and in sandwich panels for roof insulation – as well as highly specialized products such as thermal paper and specialty paints. It can also be found in the automotive sector, where SEKISUI supplies Advancell to automotive seal manufacturers, who use it in lightweight door sealing applications for car OEMs. Optimized for high‑temperature processing with rubber-based materials, Advancell enables lighter-weight, application-specific automotive parts.
With the electrification of automobiles and the introduction of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and larger human machine interface (HMI) displays, the number of onboard electronics in vehicles is increasing, along with the sources of electromagnetic noise and heat. While metal materials are excellent in electromagnetic wave shielding and heat release properties, they are heavy, and the processing cost becomes expensive. SEKISUI plastic injection molding technology with thermal conductive and EMC shielding protects electronics from problems by preventing electromagnetic interference while being 45% lighter than metal.
SEKISUI products are everywhere, not only on the road, but in the air and on the water. SELVOL, a polyvinyl alcohol, is used as a coating in the aerospace and marine industries where weight is a critical factor. SELVOL is a polymer with a high strength-to-weight ratio. This makes it a good choice for weight-sensitive applications. For example, SELVOL is also suitable as a finishing agent in the textile industry, where it is used to improve the water and wrinkle resistance of fabrics. Because of the polymer's light weight, fabrics retain their natural hand and drape.
Many people encounter SEKISUI products in their daily lives without even realizing it. And it turns out that lightweight materials play an important role in many different industries.
Thanks to SEKISUI's innovation, many products can become more efficient themselves or contribute to a greater efficiency, durability, and lower costs in numerous fields of application.