Decorative skin

Brightly coloured, light-stable decorative skins made of polyurethane can now be produced directly in a Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM) process as a result of a partnership between Bayer MaterialScience and Faurecia.

Working together, they have developed an aliphatic polyurethane production process that enables a decorative skin to be produced in a pre-production mould.

'The (new) solution is a cost-effective alternative to both polyurethane spray-on skin technology and in-mould coating RIM technology. We envisage a huge potential for the technique, particularly with decorative skins for components in automotive and commercial vehicle interiors, such as instrument panels, arm rests, centre consoles, and door trims,' said Bayer MaterialScience's Gregor Murlowski.

The aliphatic RIM skin is produced in a one-step process, making it a more cost-effective solution than the in-mould coating (IMC) RIM process, in which a decorative coating is first sprayed into the mould before aromatic polyurethane is injected in a second step.