Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) are the first companies to use an innovative new substance, “Hushlloy™,” to virtually eliminate squeaks caused by plastic parts — a problem keenly felt by Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep owners.
As cars age, the manually-applied felts or grease patches normally used to stop plastics from squeaking against each other can be dislodged or dry out; poorly done repairs, say to replace BlueTooth™ modules, can also hurt if mechanics either put plastics back in slightly-incorrect places or dislodge noise-reduction felt and grease. The result can be a car that has no mechanical breakdowns, but is loathed by owners for its seemingly unfixable squeaks and creaks.
Japanese firm Techno Polymer boasts that their new ABS and PC/ABS alloy, dubbed Hushlloy, can resolve the problem — ending the need for felt pads and grease alike. The company boasts that, rather than requiring brand new tooling, their material can simply substitute for other plastics, in the same molds.
The company has standard, heat resistant, weather resistant, high-impact-strength, glass fiber reinforced, flame-retardant, extrustion use, and low-gloss variants. If the material works as planned, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Jeep, and Ram may all move up a few steps in the quality rankings.
David Zatz has been writing about cars and trucks since the early 1990s, including books on the Dodge Viper, classic Jeeps, and Chrysler minivans. He also writes on organizational development and business at toolpack.com and covers Mac statistics software at macstats.org. David has been quoted by the New York Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Detroit News, and USA Today.