How is Dow empowering innovation through collaboration?

The automotive industry is in dire need of innovative options to decarbonize now. Historically, vehicles have been designed with limited consideration for circularity, challenging the industry to rethink its approach to find the technology needed to design the cars of the future. For car seating, the polyurethane foams used are difficult to recycle as they’re designed for durability, meaning they end up in landfills and can remain in the environment for several generations.

Dow, JLR and Adient collaborated to produce new seat foam for JLR’s luxury vehicles using closed-loop recycled content, a first in the automotive industry. This breakthrough depolymerization reduces emissions, eliminates waste, and enables a secure supply of low-carbon seat foam for vehicles while maintaining the superior comfort and quality of JLR seats. By combining their expertise, these companies set a new standard in the automotive industry that advances a low-carbon future of mobility. 

Driven by market demand, industry goals, and higher regulatory standards for reduced emissions and waste, automotive OEMs are actively seeking more circular solutions to help reach their sustainability goals. New viable physical and chemical recycling techniques to obtain new, high-quality feedstocks are needed.

Dow incorporated an advanced recycling mass-balance approach to the production of new polyurethane solutions based on a circular feedstock sourced from a waste product of the mobility sector that replaces virgin fossil-fuel based feedstock. New SPECFLEX™ C and VORANOL™ C product ranges are now offered to the mobility sector in collaboration with leading automotive suppliers Adient plc and Autoneum Holding AG.

Launched in 2021, SPECFLEX™ C and VORANOL™ C are designed to help automotive OEMs meet their market and regulatory demands for more circular products and reach their sustainability goals. Recycled feedstock is now being used to produce circular polyurethane-based products that match the performance of existing products while reducing the use of fossil feedstocks. Both products are certified by an independent mass-balance certification agency which validates that the quantity of polyurethane intermediates produced from recycled materials corresponds to the appropriate quantity of end-product, confirming that the reporting is accurate and auditable – a true service to society, following ISO 14044.

Roughly one-third of all new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. today are no longer equipped with a spare tire due to increased demand and availability of extended mobility solutions such as self-sealing and run-flat tire technologies. Unfortunately, most of the existing conventional sealant materials are difficult to separate from tires, which compromises tire repairability, end-of-life tire recycling, and tire material circularity.

After more than four years of joint research and development, in June 2022 Bridgestone introduced B-SEALS, the first-ever extended mobility self-sealing tire solution that can be easily recycled at end of life. This breakthrough technology - using newly developed SILASTIC™ self-sealing silicone material - provides excellent sealant performance in the event of a puncture without compromising sustainability.

B-SEALS sealant can be efficiently separated from tires to promote tire repairability and potentially extends the amount of time a tire is in service.

Bridgestone will initially offer tires with B-SEALS sealant technology to OEMs looking to reduce vehicle weight and improve overall efficiency as more electric vehicles come to market.

Innovative Chinese automotive startup HiPhi approached Dow Mobility’s team in China in 2019 about developing a revolutionary high-end, sustainable synthetic leather material for seats. They wanted it to match or exceed the finest Nappa leather in terms of touch, appearance, and experience without use of volatile solvents and plasticizers. Ultimately, they wanted a luxurious, odorless, low-carbon, environmentally friendly material for their first luxury electric SUV vehicle, the HiPhi X, launched in 2021.

Bringing a concept to life that encapsulates the need for speed, performance, safety and innovation is no small feat – but with Dow, it’s possible. Richard Childress Racing approached Dow on Monday morning after a weekend race – the tire rubber of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet was sticking to the wheel, slowing them down. They were hoping for a solution to prepare them for the following Sunday, so Dow got to work.

Our partnership with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) goes beyond the Diamond on the hood of the car, and much further than the finish line. Collaboration is at Dow’s core and allows us to utilize the power of materials science to advance the mobility industry. Together, scientists and engineers from RCR and our Materials Engineering Center (MEC) develop, test, and apply innovative technology ready for the racetrack to help increase performance and safety of the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet.

In a relatively short time, Dow helped the team with a quick fix for the sticking rubber and, with RCR, found a silicone mold release gel as a long-term solution. Under significant pressure and speed, value must be added safely and competitively. This silicone mold release gel works by creating a barrier between the wheel and any rubber flung up from the tires and track during the race. Keeping the tire rubber from sticking to the wheel maintains the wheel’s light weight design and prevents undesirable imbalance effects.

No matter the need, Dow’s MEC team brings extensive engineering knowledge and expertise to every unique task.

Incorporating 84 individually controllable LED pixels arrayed in three rows, the headlight dynamically distributes light in real time based on changing traffic, weather, and road conditions. It also enables the high beam function to be used more frequently to provide greater safety. Distributing light evenly from the module’s 84 LEDs required design of a complicated primary lens structure incorporating 84 light guides. The primary lens material needed to be highly flexible and durable to perform reliably during long exposure to high temperatures and photodensities.

With assistance from MobilityScience™ experts, Hella eventually specified SILASTIC™ MS-1002 Moldable Silicone which, exhibiting 72 Shore A, delivered the most suitable combination of hardness and elongation to produce complex lenses. This highly transparent material processes easily at room temperature and exhibits very low viscosity before cure. Combined with its high elongation and tear strength and easy demolding performance, these qualities significantly expand design possibilities for fabrication of complex shapes, micro-scale optical structures, multifunctional parts, and undercuts that are difficult to achieve with organic polymers. The outstanding thermal stability of SILASTIC™ MS-1002 Moldable Silicone was the most critical attribute.