On May 7, 2025, Jiangsu Compound, as an influential company in the field of global automotive interior material research and development, and Russia's well-known OEM BAZ jointly announced a major technological breakthrough through an innovative online meeting. The two parties successfully completed the upgrade of the PVC/ABS composite sheet formula, significantly improving the hardness of the material while adding two new customized specifications, tailoring a better lightweight solution for the Eastern European bus interior market.
I. Project Background: Cross-border collaboration to solve industry pain points
(I) Customer demand analysis
Russia is located in Eastern Europe, with harsh climatic conditions, long cold winters, short summers and large temperature differences. When local buses are running in such an extreme temperature difference environment, the original interior materials of Russian customers are exposed to serious deformation problems, which not only affects the aesthetics of the bus interior, but also poses a certain threat to the passengers' riding experience and safety. At the same time, with the development of the local transportation industry, the new regulations have put forward higher requirements for the flame retardant level of bus interiors, and clearly raised the flame retardant level to the B1 standard. In addition, driven by the lightweight trend in the global automotive industry, the Russian market has increasingly stringent requirements for the thickness tolerance of bus interior panels, which needs to be controlled within ±0.15mm to achieve a more accurate interior space layout and lighter body weight. These pain points have become bottlenecks in the development of the local bus interior industry and are urgently needed to be solved through technological innovation.
(II) Technical docking process
Faced with these needs of Belarusian customers, Jiangsu Compound quickly launched a close technical docking with Russia's well-known BAZ OEM. Considering the geographical and time differences in cross-border cooperation, the two parties specially formed a Moscow time working group to ensure the efficiency of communication. During the cooperation process, three cross-border video conferences were held successively, and each meeting focused on in-depth discussions on core issues such as material formulation and performance testing. In order to accurately grasp the performance data of the material, 5 rounds of sample testing were carried out, and the test data of each round were compared and analyzed in detail. At the same time, a Russian/English bilingual technical document synchronization system was established to ensure that there was no deviation in the transmission and understanding of technical information between the two parties. Through these efforts, the two parties gradually clarified the direction and goals of technical improvement, laying a solid foundation for subsequent formula upgrades.
II. Key technical breakthroughs in formula upgrades
(I) Hardness improvement plan
In order to effectively improve the hardness of PVC/ABS composite sheets, the R&D team of Jiangsu Compound has accurately optimized the toughening agent ratio, increasing it from the original 7.2% to 9.5%. At the same time, nano-scale calcium carbonate fillers with a particle size of less than 50nm were introduced. The addition of this filler can be evenly distributed in the sheet matrix to form a strong support structure, thereby significantly improving the hardness of the sheet. Dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA) shows that the storage modulus of the optimized sheet has increased by 27%, which means that the sheet can better resist deformation when subjected to external forces and has stronger rigidity.
(II) Performance balance strategy
While improving the hardness, the R&D team also fully considered the balance of other performance indicators. After many tests and adjustments, the original impact strength was successfully maintained, with an impact strength of ≥45kJ/m² at 23°C, ensuring that the sheet will not easily break when impacted, thus ensuring the safety of the bus interior. In terms of flow rate, it is controlled within the range of (8.5±0.3) g/10min, which not only ensures the fluidity of the sheet during processing and facilitates molding, but also does not affect the quality of the sheet due to excessively high or low flow rate. In addition, the sheet has passed the UL94 V-0 flame retardant certification, reaching a higher flame retardant standard, and can effectively delay the spread of flames when a fire occurs, buying more time for passengers to escape.
Application scenario analysis
The newly added 1.8mm ultra-thin plate has excellent lightweight characteristics and good forming performance, which is very suitable for instrument panel three-dimensional covering parts. It can accurately fit the complex curved surface of the instrument panel to achieve a beautiful appearance design, while reducing the weight of the vehicle body and improving fuel economy. The 4.5mm thickened plate, with its high strength and hardness, is an ideal choice for the load-bearing structure of the luggage rack. It can bear more luggage weight and ensure the stability and safety of the luggage rack. The width of the wide plate reaches 1560mm, which can be used for one-time forming of the integral side wall panel, reducing the splicing process and improving production efficiency. At the same time, it makes the appearance of the side wall panel smoother and more beautiful, and improves the overall grade of the bus interior.
As the Eastern European bus market continues to increase its requirements for interior aesthetics, lightweight and functionality, these newly added specifications of plates just meet the diversified needs of the market and have broad market prospects.
