Developed jointly with Japan Polypropylene Corporation, the new resin material maintains the same rigidity as parts made with conventional ones, while achieving significant weight reduction, since it allows making parts thinner than those using conventional resin.

This does not reduce only the weight of parts themselves, but also the quantities of resin and energy needed to manufacture these parts. When the material is used for both front and rear bumpers, it contributes to their weight reduction by approximately 20%.

This reduced thickness allows for a shorter cooling period for moulding, and by using computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology, the fluidity of the resin material has also been optimized during the production process.

As a result, bumper moulding time has been halved from 60 to 30 seconds, hence the other reductions in the amount of energy consumed in the production process.

While bumpers weight has a significant impact on fuel economy, driving performance and dynamics, they also are multi-functional, requiring both rigidity to absorb impact, and moulding and painting properties suitable for exterior design.

Mazda explains that it blended two components found in polypropylene and rubber, the constituents of resin, that have different properties, and succeeded in distributing them in a double-layer structure in line with the required function for the surface and the inside of the base bumper material. This gave the surface a good paint film adhesion while the inner section retains high rigidity and impact absorption, with reduced thickness.

Mazda plans to adopt this technology for bumpers in vehicles with engine displacement of 1500 to 2000 cc.