At this year's VDI-K conference and exhibition "Plastics in Automotive Engineering," which takes place in Mannheim, Germany on March 9 - 10th, Dow Automotive will highlight STRANDFOAM* polypropylene foam. EA countermeasures produced with this foam provide superior energy absorption, higher impact efficiency and improved safety performance while utilizing minimum packaging space and weight. The six million STRANDFOAM EA countermeasures commercialized by Dow Automotive in 2004 worldwide allow improved safety ratings and requirement compliance, enhanced design flexibility and passenger comfort.

Now available in three different densities, STRANDFOAM can be used in a wide variety of applications including: head impact protection (headliners, pillars, instrument panels and seats), knee impact protection, bumpers and side impact protection. STRANDFOAM EA countermeasures help automotive OEMs meeting impact regulations like FMVSS201 and FMVSS208, challenging consumer requirements like EuroNCAP, LINCAP, IIHS.as well as upcoming regulations (EEVC WG13, pedestrian impact phase II). Their superior EA performance can provide manufacturers a cost effective way to meet different requirements by building only one interior solution (e.g. headliner) rather than both a domestic and export version as it is currently necessary, with different occupant comfort and style in different markets.

STRANDFOAM EA countermeasures offer many benefits to OEMs. Some of the more interesting properties include: reduced packaging space, more occupant head-room in headliner applications, more occupant knee-room in lower instrument panels; high reliability of proprietary CAE material models, excellent tuneability by density and high test repeatability (prototype=production cut parts) make STRANDFOAM a flexible, efficient and low cost solution to OEMs thanks to the low development cost and leadtime, associated to limited or no tooling costs.

STRANDFOAM is another example of Dow Automotive's capability to deliver innovative and advanced solutions to the automotive industry and that address their requests on a global level.

Dow Automotive is a leading supplier of plastics, adhesives, sealants and other plastics-enhanced products for interior, exterior, under-the-hood, vehicle body structure and acoustical management applications. The organization serves global tier, OEM and aftermarket customers. With offices and application development centers around the world, Dow Automotive provides materials science expertise and comprehensive technical capabilities to its customers worldwide. For additional information about Dow Automotive products and services, visit www.dowautomotive.com. Dow Automotive is a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company.