Continental Structural Plastics, Inapal Components Reduce Weight, Complexity for New Luxury SUV in Europe
21.10.2020 14:30:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Inapal Plásticos, Continental Structural Plastics’ operations in Portugal, will be manufacturing a number of lightweight, low-density sheet molded compound (SMC) components for a premium luxury auto maker’s first SUV. These 11 components, ranging from under hood to underbody and Class A components, will reduce part complexity and overall vehicle weight.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201021005037/en/
Advanced composites allow for the molding of complex shapes to minimize parts, reducing weight and assembly complexity. (Photo: Business Wire)
By molding the complex radiator assembly frame in a low-density composite material, the OEM was able to minimize the number of parts required under the hood, significantly reducing assembly complexity and weight. Such parts are traditionally steel or aluminum and require multiple stamped components to be assembled to create the final product. Further, the SMC allows for the molding of complex shapes and deep draws, enabling CSP to create a finished assembly that fits the dramatic and distinctive styling of the vehicle.
The vehicle’s tailgate, molded in low-density, Class A SMC, is finished by CSP with a conductive primer before being shipped to the customer. This Class A SMC is e-coat oven capable, giving the customer the freedom to paint the tailgate in-house with the rest of the vehicle.
“Because this vehicle is the first SUV to be manufactured by this particular automaker, there are no direct comparisons to provide exact weight savings afforded by the use of low-density SMC,” said Orlando Rebelo, program manager at Inapal Plásticos. “But it is safe the say the weight savings will be significant and will contribute to the luxury performance customers will expect from this vehicle.”
The components will be manufactured at the CSP facilities in Leça, and Palmela, Portugal.
About Continental Structural Plastics
Continental Structural Plastics, a Teijin Group company, has provided leading-edge technologies in lightweight composite solutions for the automotive, heavy truck, HVAC and construction industries for 50 years. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, CSP provides full-service engineering support, and holds multiple patents covering materials development and manufacturing processes. The company has operations on three continents and more than 4,300 employees. For more information, visit cspplastics.com.
About the Teijin Group
Teijin (TSE: 3401) is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the fields of environmental value; safety, security and disaster mitigation; and demographic change and increased health consciousness. Originally established as Japan's first rayon manufacturer in 1918, Teijin has evolved into a unique enterprise encompassing three core business domains: high-performance materials including aramid, carbon fibers and composites, and also resin and plastic processing, films, polyester fibers and products converting; healthcare including pharmaceuticals and home healthcare equipment for bone/joint, respiratory and cardiovascular/metabolic diseases, nursing care and pre-symptomatic healthcare; and IT including B2B solutions for medical, corporate and public systems as well as packaged software and B2C online services for digital entertainment. Deeply committed to its stakeholders, as expressed in the brand statement “Human Chemistry, Human Solutions”, Teijin aims to be a company that supports the society of the future. The group comprises more than 170 companies and employs some 20,000 people across 20 countries worldwide. Teijin posted consolidated sales of JPY 853.7 billion (USD 8.0 billion) and total assets of JPY 1,004.2 billion (USD 9.4 billion) in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2020. Please visit www.teijin.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201021005037/en/
Contact information
Kim Zitny
+1 248-535-6944
kim.zitny@cspplastics.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Bentley Systems Announces Winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards7.10.2026 20:55:00 EEST | Press release
(The Bentley Systems 2026 Year in Infrastructure Event) – Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, today announced the winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards. For more than 20 years, the awards have honored the extraordinary work of infrastructure professionals and their innovative use of Bentley software to improve how infrastructure is designed, built, and operated. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261007964087/en/ Bentley Systems announced the winners of the 2026 Year in Infrastructure Awards on October 7, 2026 (Photo courtesy of Bentley Systems) In 2026, over 300 projects were nominated by organizations in 53 countries. Winners were selected across 12 categories spanning the infrastructure lifecycle, industries, and disciplines by a panel of independent judges during the Bentley Systems 2026 Year in Infrastructure Event, held October 6-7 in Sin
Day One Strategy Founders Recognised in The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 20267.10.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
Hannah Mann and Abigail Stuart, Co-Founders of Day One Strategy have been recognised as one of The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2026. The programme was created by private equity investor LDC, part of Lloyds Banking Group, in partnership with The Times. Since 2018, it has celebrated the ambition and achievements of hundreds of exceptional entrepreneurs. This year The LDC Top 50 attracted more than 620 nominations from across the UK, highlighting the depth of ambition among leaders building successful businesses in every region and sector. The leaders featured are driven by an appetite for growth that is helping to build stronger, more sustainable businesses and a more competitive UK economy. They are expanding internationally, developing new products and services, challenging established markets and investing in their people. Together, their businesses generate £1.4bn in annual revenues and employ almost 8,500 people. Headquartered in 55 towns and cities, they demonstr
TestMu AI Adds Evidence Packs to Kane CLI, Turning Every AI Test Run into One Portable, Shareable File7.10.2026 17:29:00 EEST | Press release
TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest), the Full Stack Agentic AI Quality Engineering platform, announced evidence packs for Kane CLI, its terminal-first tool for natural language browser and mobile app testing. Every Kane CLI run now produces one sealed .evidence file that holds the complete record of what the AI agent was asked to do, what it did at each step, and what happened. Kane CLI launched in April 2026, giving developers and AI coding agents a way to run tests on real browsers and mobile apps from the terminal, in plain English, with a clear pass-or-fail verdict. Since launch, it has added AI-powered test case generation and the Assurance Lifecycle, which ties tests back to requirement documents. Evidence packs are the next step: a full record of every run. As AI agents write and run more tests, engineering teams need a clear answer to a simple question: what exactly did the agent do, and why did the run pass or fail? That proof is often spread across screenshots, log folders, and d
Medisca and EUROAPI Form Strategic Partnership to Strengthen API Access for Pharmaceutical Compounding7.10.2026 17:07:00 EEST | Press release
Medisca and EUROAPI have formed a strategic partnership focused on expanding API access for pharmaceutical compounding, creating differentiated access in North America and establishing a broader framework for international growth and peptide collaboration. For more than three decades, Medisca has built its business around the evolving needs of pharmaceutical compounders. That starts with the products it chooses to bring to market but extends much further to the manufacturers behind them, the documentation and technical information supporting them, and the quality systems that carry those products through to the customer. The partnership with EUROAPI advances that approach. Under the new strategic partnership, Medisca becomes EUROAPI’s first strategic distribution partner focused on bringing its European-manufactured APIs to the North American compounding market. The collaboration includes exclusive supply arrangements for selected APIs and creates a framework to expand the offering ove
iQmetrix Launches Vendor Managed Inventory Integration with Valor Communication7.10.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
iQmetrix, the global provider of Intelligent Commerce Operating Systems for telecom, is launching a Vendor Managed Inventory integration with Valor Communication, a factory-direct wireless accessory manufacturer and distributor serving carriers, retailers, and dealers since 1997. Built into the iQmetrix Intelligent Commerce Operating System, the integration connects Valor's assortment directly to the platform telecom retailers already run their business on – so replenishment runs on real sell-through data instead of guesswork, and approved accessories move from Valor's floor to the peg without manual reordering. The integration will be available to retailers across the iQmetrix client base. The addition of Valor Communication marks another step in the rapid expansion of the iQmetrix Partner Ecosystem, bringing clients a growing network of integrated partners that work natively inside the platform they already run their business on. This press release features multimedia. View the full
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom