Fürth – The coating manufacturer Leonhard Kurz will be exhibiting an avant-garde design for automotive interiors in the form of a door trim concept at this year’s Fakuma. The plastic component will be produced at the trade fair booth B1-1105 of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag by means of an injection molding process with concurrent In-Mold Decoration (IMD).

Rather than the customary finely structured design, the component exhibits an expressive, large area single image in a day/night design. The design consists of a gradient of increasingly wide lines that reflect the dynamics of a sports car in motion. The two-color day design in blue and black shows cool tones, which are preferred for hybrid and electric cars, while the night design shows alternating light colors. The backlighting of the functionally ready door trim is activated and intensified by means of a touch button, and the luminous color can be changed using a slider. The alternating light play enhances the dynamic effect of the line design.

The backlit day/night design, and the touch functionality provided to activate the lighting necessitate a highly precise transfer of the design onto the component. This precision is achieved using the Systec Servo 280/630-1450 injection molding machine from Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, a handling system specially developed by the machine manufacturer for this application, and the foil, foil feeding, and mold technology from Kurz.

A suitably precise positioning of the touch sensors on the component is obtained thanks to Kurz’s recently developed FFB (Functional Foil Bonding) process. The FFB process for fully mechanical sensor integration will be demonstrated live at the Kurz booth A4-4122. Trade fair visitors will also have the opportunity to personally activate the touch functions and the day/night design transition on a demonstrator.

Concept door trim from Kurz with a day/night design. (Photo: Kurz)