"In an industry like ours based on long term stable customer relationships, commitment is an important success factor. Our presence at VDI is centered on the theme of 'Engineering the future' - we want to show our customers how we have continued to invest in our engineering capabilities," says Dagmar van Heur, VP Automotive at Styron. He adds: "Whereas traditionally, plastics was the material of choice for interior parts, today it goes hand in hand with lightweighting, hence the increasing use of plastics for the development of structural parts as well. A key enabling technology for its increased use, are the engineering capabilities for such materials. Whilst OEM engineers are very comfortable working with metal, the use of reinforced plastics requires different engineering skills mainly available at the material supplier's front. We see a clear trend towards partnering of Automotive OEMs with their material supplier for these types of projects. In line with this, one of our main objectives at VDI is to further strengthen customer relationships and help our customers to be more successful with incorporating glass fiber products into their end-products."
