1999 SPE Award Winners:
Chassis/Hardware/Assembly Category

Tail Gate Seal

This innovative tail gate seal is produced in a co-extrusion process which produces a mechanically water foamed TEO sealing bulb attached to a dense TEO substrate section.  The TEO substrate is extruded over a metal carrier insert that acts as a clamp to hold the foot in place.  This application is the first use of a multi component fully dynamic TEO (TPE) foam weatherseal, an area that almost exclusively uses EPDM type rubber.  The two illustrations below show the foam bulb, dense substrate and metal insert that make up this sealing system.

If all weather sealing applications in a vehicle were converted to this type of material, it could increase the recycling percentage of the vehicle by 0.5%.