For the 50 million new cars produced each year, the polymers find broad applications in the passenger compartment. Some of them are well known, for example foams for seats, but others are more or less hidden such as beams of dashboards or sound shields. There are also little parts such as seals, pedal covers, handles, buttons that use very diversified materials.
All these plastics vary according to:
* The countries,
* The carmakers even in the same country
* The diffusion of the model
* The rank of the model in the global range
Today, consumers, engineers and legislators are looking for various goals that are sometimes contradictory:
* For customers are important:
o Styling,
o Comfort,
o Cost,
o Ergonomics.
* For engineers are important:
o Weight saving,
o Cost cutting,
o Ease of processing,
o Regulation compliance.
* Legislators require more:
o Safety,
o Environment respect,
o Recycling