A seminar organized by Persico and Total took place at the Italian company's headquarters in Nembro (Bergamo, Italy) on June 20 to present to processors and the trade press a prototype electric city car manufactured using moulds and a Leonardo machine developed by Persico.
The new Bio-TP Seal material, developed by the French chemical group for this application, is obtained by combining modified polyethylene and PLA (polylactic acid) from corn and sugar beets. It is sufficiently flexible and lightweight to meet design and safety requisites for vehicles. These properties are optimized using rotational moulding to product the two large main components (front element and car body) of the prototype. This reduces production costs and weight while ensuring excellent functional and aesthetic characteristics.
The seminar program included a number of technical presentations in the morning and a visit to the Persico R&D department, with live demonstrations of the new material in use, in the afternoon.