Long Fiber Injection Market - UTV - Romeo RIM

Taking a look at a UTV, it quickly becomes apparent that Long Fiber Injection is a perfect fit for these rugged vehicles.  These vehicles need to be tough and lightweight, which is exactly what LFI offers.

Specifically, the roofs, doors and hoods of UTV’s are sized to fit the LFI process and require the stiffness, design features and aesthetics that LFI has to offer.

LFI Characteristics

Stiffness and Strength

LFI parts are exceptionally stiff. The addition of glass fiber to polyurethane increases the modulus of the material and allows for thinner wall design while maintaining high strength.  This also uses less material.

Oftentimes, stiff materials can be brittle. Not so with Long Fiber Injection.  Glass fibers are sprayed into an open mold in a random pattern which results in a very high impact resistant part.  The strength of LFI material is comparable to materials you may already know like SMC, FRP or Steel.

Lightweight

Because LFI parts are so strong, less material is needed to achieve similarly strong parts with other materials. This results are parts that are far lighter than the materials you are currently using.

• – LFI is 80% lighter than steel
• – LFI is 60% lighter than aluminum
• – LFI is 50% lighter than FRP
• – LFI is 40% lighter than SMC

Lightweighting UTV vehicles can help to pass ROHVA’s J-turn test by reducing the vehicle’s center of gravity. It also allows designers the freedom to add part features elsewhere if needed without an overall weight increase.

Because LFI is lighter than most materials, it is much easier to work with and can help to reduce costs associated with handling, shipping and assembling.

Corrosion Resistance

Unlike steel and aluminum, polyurethane by nature, simply does not rust or corrode.  LFI can help preserve the aesthetics of UTV vehicles for a much longer period of time.

Dimensional Stability

LFI parts have a very high dimensional stability.  They do not warp under extreme conditions and can keep to its required specifications making assembly easier while ensuring a perfect fit.

Painting, Design and Aesthetics

LFI provides the freedom to incorporate B-side features to your large parts.  Incorporating bosses and inserts are an important part of assembly and can help reduce the costs of labor as those features are molded-in and not added manually.

Romeo RIM has developed a way to paint directly into the mold which eliminates entirely the costly post-production paint process.

Because LFI uses a mold, textures and surface finishes can be incorporated to achieve some very nice looking parts.  Add high gloss surfaces or a fine grain texture or both on a single part.

Current Materials

The materials used to produce doors, roofs and hoods include Thermoplastic, Sheet Molding Compound, Fiberglass as well as aluminum and steel.  Each of these have attractive features that make them a good choice in their own right, but they also have drawbacks that LFI parts do not possess.

For instance, a thermoformed thermoplastic part has relatively poor dimensional stability and is subject to warp and/or shrinkage at the mercy of the environment.  This can cause difficulty in assembly if the dimensions are not to spec.  It can also cause leaky doors and roofs from not fitting correctly which can lead to disgruntled, WET passengers.  Thermoformed parts also require a sub frame for support as they lack the stiffness needed by itself.  This, of course, adds weight and cost.

Sheet Molding Compound is a strong, formidable material for UTV’s, but it’s very heavy to work with.  Additionally, it requires very expensive tooling which makes SMC a very costly up-front investment.  Finally, SMC requires post-mold paint which can add up to 50% more cost.

As with SMC, steel is extremely heavy to work with and also requires post-production paint.  Furthermore, working with steel limits the amount of geometric pleasing features that molded parts can achieve.

Finally, fiberglass, as with the other materials, is heavy and requires post-production paint.  Fiberglass also lacks B-side features that are important to assembly and strengthening the part.

LFI is an amalgam of all the good features of these materials but with none of the drawbacks.  It’s light, it’s strong, its dimensionally stable, requires no post-paint (paint is applied during the molding process) and it can produce beautiful geometries, surface finishes and textures with B-side features.  What’s not to like?

Our Expertise

Romeo RIM has been producing LFI parts since 1999 and we are the only manufacturer of Long Fiber Injection in North America.  Because of the nature of working with polymers, we are able to partner with OEM’s to produce the necessary characteristics you are looking for in a composite material.  We are able to do this by adjusting the amount of filler or with the use of a blowing agent to achieve a range of characteristics you require.