SABIC is showcasing a broad portfolio of innovative design and material solutions at Plastindia 2015, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, February 5-10, 2015. With a history in India that spans more than 20 years, SABIC has a deep understanding of customer challenges in India, particularly in the automotive, rail, electrical and lighting industries.
“We are very excited to be a part of Plastindia 2015,” highlights Janardhanan Ramanujalu, SABIC Vice President and Regional Head, South Asia and Australia. “Throughout our presence in India, we have embraced the challenge to help our customers find the right answers, and some of them will be showcased at SABIC’s Plastindia show booth. We are proud of our Vadodara facility, which has contributed to the country’s best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure in Innovative Plastics and of the expertise we’ve developed in industries such as automotive, rail, electrical and lighting, addressing our customer needs in India."
Focus on lightweight solutions for India’s automakers
SABIC is working closely with the automotive industry to help them develop lighter vehicles with lower emissions and improved fuel economy. Some examples of this collaboration will be on display at PlastIndia. For example, SABIC will showcase a lightweight aero corner panel on the 2014 Condo Pro 6031 truck of Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VEVC), a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors. SABIC’s NORYL GTX™ 989 resin helped reduce the weight of the truck’s aero corner panel by approximately 37 percent versus sheet metal. The material delivered a number of additional benefits, such as parts integration, increased design flexibility, corrosion resistance and improved impact resistance.
In addition to displaying production parts with demonstrated weight savings across various applications on both passenger vehicles and heavy trucks, SABIC is featuring highly promising concepts like an all-thermoplastic tailgate that can potentially help automakers realize weight savings of up to 30 percent or 12.5kg compared to tailgates of a similar size using conventional materials, while also meeting requirements for stiffness and strength.
Supporting the rise of LED lighting and solar energy in India
India’s dynamic economic growth and modernization over the past several years has led to a significant increase in energy consumption. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), India is the fourth-largest energy consumer in the world, trailing only the United States, China and Russia. These rising energy needs have led the Indian government to develop policies and initiatives that encourage investment in the energy sector, including the adoption of more efficient LED lighting and the development of solar energy technologies.
SABIC works with industry leaders in all parts of the LED lighting and solar value chain and offers expertise and experience with design, application processing, and material solutions that help drive innovation and spark new ideas. For example, SABIC’s LEXAN™ resin portfolio of polycarbonate (PC) materials for the lighting industry, which includes flame retardant grades, offers designers a range of choices to help them meet industry challenges. This includes resins with excellent weathering resistance, color stability and high transparency, making them particularly good candidates for streetlamps, an area where LED lighting is seeing significant growth in India.
SABIC has responded to the growing demand for solar energy by providing solutions that specifically address customer challenges. One example is the Schneider Electric Solar UPS Inverter (on display at SABIC’s booth). Solar inverters are usually placed outdoors close to the solar panels. Given their size and weathering requirements, inverter enclosures are traditionally designed in metal. However, metal can require considerable machining, which adds to production time, and extensive painting to overcome corrosion issues.
SABIC provided Schneider with the design and processing support required to convert their metal inverter into plastic. The design addressed key requirements like ease of manufacturability, part optimization, aesthetics, mechanical performance and low warpage. Schneider selected SABIC’s LEXAN EXL resin for its ability to meet impact strength at sub-zero temperatures and damp heat test at above 2000 hours.
Safety, aesthetics and durability for India’s rail industry
With a growing middle class in India and more people moving from rural and suburban areas to urban centers, there is an increased demand for reliable, appealing and long-lasting transportation solutions that can withstand the high usage demands placed on municipal infrastructure. This is particularly relevant to the Mumbai rail network, perhaps the most densely packed and intensively used rail network in the world. With support from SABIC, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), located in Chennai, designed a three-seat modular system using injection-molded polycarbonate to replace conventional single thermoformed seats. In addition to receiving rail ministry and passenger accolades for the seats’ comfort and appearance, the new three-seat design is easy to maintain, resistant to weathering and vandalism, more sustainable and meets internationally-recognized rail car standards for flame resistance.
ICF selected SABIC’s LEXAN 923X resin for its excellent strength and scratch resistance and its compliance with international rail regulations, such as flame retardance and smoke density regulation UIC 564-2, app 11, and toxicity regulation NCD 1409. Additionally, the high-flow resin enables the seating to be manufactured using injection moulding, a process that is more efficient than traditional thermoforming, which can take days compared to hours. The injection-moulded seat system can also be recycled at the end of its life; unlike thermoset materials which are not recyclable.
More information on how SABIC has helped modernize Mumbai’s railway system can be found on the SABIC website.
Modern technologies for sustainable living
Reducing energy consumption in the construction industry is a major priority for builders and architects around the world. Sustainable urbanization is critical for India, where according to a recent McKinsey report, urbanization rates are set to grow from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million in 2030. SABIC will display a broad range of material solutions at Plastindia that will help respond to this challenge.
SABIC’s versatile LEXAN sheet portfolio is an excellent candidate for a variety of structures and applications such as roof glazing and anti-vandalism glazing. Comprised of solid and multiwall sheet and systems, the LEXAN portfolio offers an array of benefits such as light weighting, ease of installation, and energy conservation. These solutions help customers tap into the sustainable building market while mitigating installation and energy costs. They can even contribute to LEED certification efforts by providing natural light, optimizing energy performance and utilizing recycled content.
A long history of inclusive growth
Following in the footsteps of the Vadodara facility, which is the largest of its kind in the country, SABIC established its Technology Center (STC) in Bangalore. This LEED Gold and GRIHA 4 star certified facility has brought the company’s research closer to the Indian market and has also tapped into local talent in order to develop solutions that are tailor-made to local requirements. Both the Vadodara facility and the STC are aligned with the Indian government’s “Make in India” program.
SABIC also supports local communities through a number of CSR initiatives. From its blood donation drives organized at SABIC locations to an eye care initiative that has supported up to 10,000 underserved children, SABIC continues to demonstrate its commitment to the community.
“We are proud of our role in supporting the Indian government’s Make in India strategy,” said Ramanujalu. “Our goal is to continue advancing the industries where we have demonstrated market leadership, while expanding into a number of growth segments such as healthcare, telecommunications and consumer electronics. We are excited about what the future will bring and will continue to deliver solutions that power the ambitions of our customers and help them excel in their markets.”
SABIC invites visitors attending Plastindia 2015 to visit the SABIC stand at Hall 14R, Stall C3.
ABOUT SABIC
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
SABIC recorded a net profit of SR 23.43 billion (US$ 6.25 billion) in 2014. Sales revenues for 2014 totalled SR 189 billion (US$ 50.32 billion). Total assets stood at SR 341 billion (US$ 90.93 billion) at the end of 2014.
SABIC’s businesses are grouped into Chemicals, Polymers, Performance Chemicals, Fertilizers, Metals and Innovative Plastics. SABIC has significant research resources with 19 dedicated Technology & Innovation facilities in Saudi Arabia, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, India, China and South Korea. The company operates in more than 45 countries across the world with around 40,000 employees worldwide.
SABIC manufactures on a global scale in Saudi Arabia, the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Headquartered in Riyadh, SABIC was founded in 1976 when the Saudi Arabian Government decided to use the hydrocarbon gases associated with its oil production as the principal feedstock for production of chemicals, polymers and fertilizers. The Saudi Arabian Government owns 70 percent of SABIC shares with the remaining 30 percent held by private investors in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
ABOUT INNOVATIVE PLASTICS
SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business is a leading, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics with an 80-year history of breakthrough solutions that solve its customers’ most pressing challenges. Today, Innovative Plastics is a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company continues to lead the plastics industry with customer collaboration and continued investments in new polymer technologies, global application development, process technologies, and environmentally responsible solutions that serve diverse markets such as Healthcare, Transportation, Automotive, Electrical, Lighting and Consumer Electronics. The company’s extensive product portfolio includes thermoplastic resins, coatings, specialty compounds, film, and sheet. Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).
Photo Caption:
SABIC solutions for Lighting industry: With the addition of two new grades of KONDUIT™ compound, SABIC offers a solution that can enhance thermal management for Lighting customers at a cost that helps them maintain a competitive edge.
SABIC solutions for Rail industry: Integral Coach Factory (ICF) was selected to develop new modular seating for what is perhaps the most intensively used suburban rail system in the world. ICF was able to design a seating system using SABIC’s injection molded LEXAN™ 923X resin and a fresh design to replace conventional single thermoformed seats for the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), which is responsible for executing projects for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project under the sanction of the Indian Rail Ministry.
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