EPP technical parts
Why should you use EPP for Technical Parts?
EPP has some outstanding properties that make it a suitable material for a broad range of solutions. Specially, it presents interesting advantages when used for technical parts. Let’s give an overview of the most relevant ones.
Efficiency
EPP insulation properties are key to promote efficiency, as they prevent energy losses or other inefficiencies, especially in HVAC and construction industries. Also its lightweight nature favours efficiency in automotive industry and logistics, as it dramatically reduces the weight of the transported loads, resulting in less fuel consumption. All this results in a reduction in the carbon footprint.
Process Optimisation
Thanks to an excellent optimization of volume and weight and load bearing property, EPP guarantees non-deformability and resistance. That is the reason why it is the ideal material to realize components for industries such as logistics and automotive. Here new tendencies such as smart packaging come into play.
Freedom design
Due to the fact that it can be precisely shaped, EPP is extremely versatile and offers a high degree of personalization in design. Furthermore, our development department and sales team specialized in the development of technical parts go a step further and work closely with our customers to pursue eco-design of their new goods.
Comfort
Thanks to some of its most highlighted properties, such as thermal and acoustic insulation, resistance or waterproofing, EPP technical applications contribute to generating comfort. Think for example in the HVAC industry, where it helps cover the noise of the machinery, prevent mould and create a clean atmosphere at the same time.
Aesthetic aspect
Expanded polypropylene has excellent aesthetic qualities, making it the ideal material to be used for interior design. The raw material can be pre-coloured during the expansion process without any adverse effects on the performance or properties of the moulded product. At Knauf Industries we have around 40 different models of surface finishes, which allows us to offer a great customization experience. In addition, we can design ad-hoc finishes.
Particularly, to ensure a perfect aesthetic finish of our parts, we use the following decoration techniques:
- Watercolour paints.
- Two-tone paint.
- Masking.
- Tampoprinting
- Inlet.
- Hotstamping.
How are EPP technical parts produced
Quality Control
High quality is a value expected in almost every area of life that takes on special relevance in manufacturing of technical parts. Manufacturing companies, in order to compete effectively and acquire new customers, have to meet growing demands in this area. The compliance of each component used to manufacture some technical part with precisely defined norms and standards is crucial as it determines its reliability and safety. Take for instance the automotive industry.
In this regard, manufacturing in accordance with strict standards and subjected to demanding tests to meet the highest quality requirements is a must. This is the only way to achieve perfect compatibility of a component with the precisely defined parameters that requires appropriate management of processes related to production quality. At Knauf Industries we manufacture a wide range of EPP technical parts at several plants around the world by combining our rich know-how, innovation and many years of experience in the field of processing with the best standards developed in the different industries.
Engineering projects
EPP has great engineering performance and multiple features that are ideal for various applications. In their drive for optimization, many industries are in the search for materials that meet the greatest number of specific requirements. This search has found in polypropylene one of the fundamental allies, to the extent that it is considered the most important plastic in automotive engineering today.
This can be easily explained: its superb properties, such as high resistance to impact, compression and temperature, low water absorption capacity and lightweight, makes them perfectly suitable to protect delicate electronic components. Also it is perfect to step out from wires, clips and metal boards that only serve to hold components in place.
Therefore, lots of highly fragile and lightening products rely on these materials to protect the delicate electronics they use, as they are way more resistant than simple plastic electronic components.
EPP production
Knauf Industries has globally renowned expertise in moulded product design and manufacturing, especially when dealing with EPS and EPP. For our purposes, let’s focus on the latter.
The EPP production process consists in several steps:
EPP material is heated with steam at temperatures between 80ºC and 110ºC. In this phase, the compact beads of the raw material become light cellular plastic beads with small closed cells that contain 98% air inside
The newly expanded particles are cooled creating a vacuum that enables introducing air by diffusion. Thanks to this, the pearls achieve greater mechanical stability and improve their expansive capacity while drying
Here comes moulding, a key stage of its processing. The first step is preheating the mould for clamping. Next, beads are injected into moulds. Then the pressure and heat of the steam fuse the pearls into the desired finished shape.
Steam is applied to the mould with EPP packing. This phase has several stages:
- Steam wash: steam is rinsed to push air out of the steam chamber and let condensed water flow out.
- Cross steam: steam must be extended from one side of the steam chamber into the material and vice versa. If there is a thin flange on the mould, the steam should preferably pass through the flange so that material trapped in it can also be melted.
- Pressure retention: after passing the steam horizontally, it must pass the process of pressure retention or double-sided steam fusion. During this process the pressure gradually reaches the maximum value.
It is time to cool the mould, which usually reaches 140 °C to ensure smooth demoulding. It is necessary to reduce the temperature of the mould to 70 ° C.
Once the internal pressure is relieved and the temperature is low enough, the demoulding process may begin.
The last step is drying up the stereotypes. In general, the drying temperature is set at 60°C ~ 80°C, and the drying room should keep the air dry and the ventilation condition good.
Manufacturing of Technical Parts
At the first stage, it is necessary to prepare an initial design of the technical parts. Then, comes the official project nomination and the final design ellaboration. The next step is prototyping and its validation, where our tool development team goes into action to coordinate the election and elaboration of the most optimal tools for the project.
Once these technical parts have been manufactured and launched, it is the turn for the pre-serial production. After their testing and, if necessary, tuning until they completely fulfill the expectations, the serial production is launched.
Moulding of Technical Parts
Plastic injection moulding is the ideal technique for manufacturing a wide range of exterior and interior technical moulded parts, such as bumpers or air vents. Our team of experienced plastic injection professionals works closely with original equipment manufacturers and tier one OEM suppliers to review and define all of the required technical specifications to optimize all kinds of technical parts.
Namely, we are specialists in thermoplastic injection and decoration of plastic parts. Our know-how also includes gas-assisted injection, gloss and electronic modeling.
Industries
There are various industries that can benefit from EPP technical parts, being the following ones the most prominent:
Electronic equipment
Car manufacturing
HVAC
Logistics
Furniture
Sport & Leisure
Home applications and toys
Pallets and plank
Electronic equipment
Because of its high resistance to impact, compression and temperature and waterproofing, EPP is perfectly suitable to protect delicate electronic components that are no good friends with water or sudden temperature changes. That is why it is used in drones, small engines, computers, medical-scientific devices or aircrafts among others.
Car manufacturing
thanks to their outstanding energy-absorbing properties, EPP parts improve passive safety and provide better protection to passengers. Therefore, they are used to make fenders, headrests, and other impact absorbs. Also, EPP lightness helps cut fuel consumption and make cars more eco-friendly.
HVAC
EPP components combine excellent thermal insulation properties with a lightweight nature. Therefore, they are a step forward compared to previously heavier structures. For its part, thermal insulation guarantees a reduction in energy losses throughout the system and impermeability prevents condensation and its direct consequence: mould growth.
Logistics
The durability of EPP allows for multi-use, transport ready packaging for many different types of components, including sensitive ones. Also its versatility and customization enables the safe transportation of all product sizes, from tiny needles to large trays for automotive industry or home appliances.
Furniture
easy to move and assemble furniture is increasingly fashionable. Here is where the lightweight and versatility of EPP come into play, expanding the possibilities for designers.
Sport & Leisure
EPP can be used for a variety of sport items thanks to its weight-strength ratio, for example, yoga rolls. Furthermore, due to its impermeability it is suitable for aquatic sports equipment, such as jet boards and due to its resistance to impact it is an excellent option to use in bike helmets.
Home applications and toys
EPP products are used in many regular items used at home such as baby hip seats, ironing boards or flowerpots. There are also more and more used for toys as it is an eco-friendly and non-toxic material.
Pallets and plank
thanks to EPP they are lighter and stronger, being able to provide more product protection with less material.