Just ahead of K 2025, ENGEL secured four gold awards at the SPE Automotive Awards, underscoring the company’s technological depth and solution expertise. The winning entries span the categories “Electronical / Optical Part,” “Body Interior,” “Enabler Technology” and the top “Grand Innovation Award.” Across these projects, the common thread is the intelligent interaction of materials, process control and machine technology to achieve high functional integration, robust series manufacturability and quantifiable sustainability benefits. The components range from a highly automated decorative lighting part and a foamed airbag cover to a thermoplastic high-voltage battery housing and a convertible top cover based on an integrated organomelt cell. Each application focuses on delivering customer value through resource-efficient production, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness while meeting stringent quality and regulatory expectations in automotive series production.
In the electronical/optical application, the process integrates multiple materials and a sensitive decorative film without paint or plating, which supports deployment at sites with strict environmental regulations. The body interior solution pairs lightweight construction with surface quality despite foaming. The enabler technology project targets the structural and safety demands of e-mobility while lowering lifecycle emissions. The Grand Innovation Award recognises a fully recyclable lightweight composite solution that combines forming and injection moulding in one cell to reduce part mass and installation height compared with a prior metal design. Taken together, the four awards reflect close collaboration with partners and an emphasis on scalable, series-ready technologies.
Electronical / optical part
A lighting and functional decorative part for the BMW X3, manufactured by Yanfeng, took gold. The component is produced in a fully automated 3K injection moulding process with in-mould labelling. It features a translucent matte chrome film with a 3D depth effect and a self-healing PUR surface. The emission-free, paint-free and plating-free approach is suited to production sites with strict environmental regulations. The principal challenge is the reliable integration of multiple materials and the sensitive decorative film into a highly automated series process, addressed through coordinated process and system control on the ENGEL cell.
Function meets design: This decorative and functional part for the BMW X3 combines matte chrome film with a PUR surface – a showcase for highly automated 3K processes. Photo: Yanfeng
Body interior
The foamed airbag cover used by various OEMs combines surface quality with a 45% reduction in CO₂ emissions, marking a step toward more sustainable automotive manufacturing. The part is made from a fully recyclable TPE-O monomaterial that supports the circular economy. The key manufacturing challenge is to achieve a flawless surface despite foaming. This is managed through precise process control on the ENGEL system, enabling repeatable, series-capable quality.
Enabler technology
The gold-winning project in this category is a next-generation thermoplastic battery housing system for high-voltage applications. It delivers a 43% CO₂ reduction over its lifecycle while meeting stringent safety and mechanical strength requirements. The solution illustrates ENGEL's system expertise for sustainable mobility and supports further weight and efficiency gains in electric vehicles.
Enabling e-mobility: The thermoplastic battery housing for high-voltage applications reduces lifecycle CO₂ emissions by 43%. Photo: Sabic
Grand innovation award
The top honour went to a thermoplastic convertible top cover for the Mercedes-Benz CLE Cabriolet manufactured using the ENGEL organomelt process. The method combines heating and forming of organic sheets with subsequent injection moulding in a single production cell, creating a fully recyclable lightweight solution that is 15% lighter and has a lower overall height than the previous metal version. The technically demanding integration of two processes demonstrates system-level expertise and enables series production of innovative lightweight components.
The team of project partners involved with ENGEL in the "Grand Innovation Award" accepts the award in Bonn. Photo: SPE Central Europe.V.
Collectively, the four gold awards highlight ENGEL’s position as a technology leader. The projects show how deep process know-how and integrated system solutions can translate into series-ready applications that improve resource efficiency, energy use and cost effectiveness in plastics processing.
