Freudenberg Group: Sustainable innovation: underbody shield for automobiles

Cars are made up of about 30,000 components on average. This figure alone highlights just how complex and challenging circularity in the automotive industry is.

The underbody shield from the Freudenberg Performance Materials Business Group is a sustainable innovation that protects cars from the many effects of the environment. The combination of staple fiber and spunbond nonwovens provides greater stiffness than competing products made of pure staple fibers, excellent acoustic absorption and greater water repellency through what is known as the lotus effect.

Freudenberg’s underbody shield also has a low weight: it is up to 25 percent lighter than conventional underbody panels – that reduces vehicle weight and thus saves energy and lowers CO₂ emissions during service life.

Freudenberg automotive underbody shields promote sustainable mobility.

Furthermore, the entire process it is designed for sustainability – all the way from production to the end of service life. The staple fiber is already up to 50 percent recycled when it is made into underbody staple fiber further. In the future, 100 percent of the waste generated in production at Freudenberg Performance Materials and at customers is to be recycled. And if suitable conditions are established at the automotive manufacturers, it would even be possible to take back the underbody shield after end of life, i.e. after about 15 years of use in the vehicle, recycle it and use it for new applications.