On Wednesday, November 7, 2018, Shape, along with representatives from Honda R&D Americas and SABIC, accepted an award on behalf of the original team that worked to develop the first injection molded thermoplastic (PC/PBT) energy absorber for a vehicle bumper system on the 2003 Honda Element at the 48th annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, at the Burton Manor in Livonia, Michigan.
“Being recognized for the SPE 2018 Innovation Hall of Fame Award is a great honor. Our energy absorber technology is a great example of Shape innovation and value creation for our customers. We thank Honda for their early adoption of the technology and our Shape team of Thinkers, Believers and Doers for pushing the envelope on new ideas and bringing our customers better solutions,” Mark White said.
To qualify, an automotive plastic or composite component must have been in continuous service in some form for at least 15 years and broadly adopted in the automotive industry. This application certainly qualifies as over 80 million pounds of XENOY™ (PC/PBT) injection molded energy absorbers have been validated and launched on multiple vehicles, in both front and rear bumper system applications, leading to numerous innovations improving crash safety worldwide.