1999 SPE Award Winners:
Environment Category

Grand Cherokee Lower Radiator Seal

The components shown above are radiator seals made from a hybrid olefin base elastomer.  This material can contain up to 60% post-consumer, tire-derived rubber.  This formulation has many of the processing characteristics of thermoplastics, allowing it to be processed using the following:

• Injection Molding
• Extrusion
• Blow Molding
• Thermoforming

Additionally, it has many of properties of conventional rubber, such as:

• Flexibility
• Sound Absorption

• Cold Impact Resistance

The current production of the formulation used in this part is close to 4 million pounds, resulting in the reclamation of 150,000 scrapped tires.  This has reduced the need for landfill and the demand for petroleum derived virgin materials.