- Overview
- Areas of Application
- Automotive Interiors
- Body-in-White
- Chassis and Wheels
- Electronic Control Unit
- EV Battery and ePowertrain
- Exteriors and Glass
- Human Machine Interface (HMI)
- Propulsion and Emissions
- Sensors and Cameras
- View All Areas of Applications
- Product Solutions
- Abrasives
- Acoustics
- Attachment Tape and Fasteners
- Automotive Structural Adhesives
- Boron Nitride Cooling Fillers
- Friction Shims
- Glass Bubbles
- View All Product Solutions
- Resources
- Support
Enjoy more design freedom and optimize manufacturing processes for automotive exteriors and glass applications with the help of 3M solutions.
3M solutions for automotive exteriors and glass
When it comes to designing the exterior of a vehicle, many different challenges come into play. These include bonding of dissimilar substrates, overall design and craftsmanship, NVH-T needs, and surface protection. For glass, it’s about cabin comfort and energy efficiency. Aesthetics and brand differentiation are also key goals, especially in the competitive automotive market.
Stay on top of industry trends, add design flexibility and boost productivity with automotive exteriors and glass solutions from 3M. Explore adhesives formulated for a broad range of challenging substrates and go beyond mechanical fastening with innovative bonding and sealing solutions. Fit and finish your vision with appealing bond lines that stay true even in harsh environments.
At 3M, we’re always looking ahead and will continue to forge the future of automotive design, along with our industry partners.
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Streamline assembly from start to finish
Material compositions used in automotive exteriors are evolving. The inclusion of recycled plastics, dissimilar materials and advanced paint systems have all made bonding a challenge. You need durable, reliable bonding and sealing for complex surfaces, watertight sealing and more. You also need aesthetically pleasing bond lines to complete the look. 3M can help.
3M offers a wide range of solutions and expertise for modern automotive assembly, from demonstration capabilities in automated and semi-automated manufacturing to manual assembly tools that help boost efficiency like rollers, liner strip-off tools, stretch laminators, unwind assemblies and more.
3M solutions for assembly in exteriors and glass
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Optimize trim attachment and production
Easily integrate tapes into automated and semi-automated assembly lines. Our most recent lines of tapes feature strong, break-resistant liners and balanced liner release, making the tapes compatible with robotic processes.
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Improve process efficiency in glass applications
Attach components faster with pre-applied bonding tape. OEM hardware combined with 3M™ Structural Bonding Tape includes rain sensor, humidity control, camera and combo brackets, mirror buttons and more. The hardware and adhesive work together in manual or automated manufacturing or available autoclave processes.
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Bond to medium- and low-surface-energy materials
Medium- and low-surface-energy materials can sometimes require extra adhesion. Enhance tape performance and bond to challenging surfaces such as PVC compounds, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polyolefin-based substrates with adhesion promoters from 3M. Apply using a variety of methods including applicators, wipes, rollers and more.
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Complete the job fast with manual assembly toolsThe equipment you use to apply attachment tapes is crucial for your process efficiency. Explore specialized manual application equipment solutions from 3M, including rollers with tunable clutches for consistent wet out and our 3M™ Flange Unwind Assembly, which makes for smooth, even unwinding and liner removal on single or multiple tape rolls.
3M Tape Applicator and Dispenser Parts and Accessories for OEM and Tier
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Tab and splice with easeDecrease the time and effort needed for tape application. Use tabbing tapes to smoothly remove liners and splicing tapes to splice or join multiple pieces together. These tapes are either heat-bonded or pressure sensitive, and intended for use with 3M™ Acrylic Foam Tapes or 3M™ Acrylic Plus Tapes.
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Expand your design toolkit
Designing tomorrow’s vehicle exterior is all about bold choices and forging trends. 3M can help provide more design options in exterior and glass applications to help you bring your latest vision to life.
Attachment options from 3M can support clean aesthetics and give you confidence even with challenging surfaces and shapes. Help your brand stand out in the marketplace with body contrast films and blackout films that deliver exceptional accents and style. Address NVH-T and improve overall cabin experience with acoustic insulation. You’ll even find opportunities for process improvement with pre-applied structural tapes.
3M solutions for design flexibility in exteriors and glass
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Find new looks with film
From the drawing board to the roll-out, you want to protect and enhance automotive exterior designs and tell your brand story — do it with design and functional films from 3M. Whether it’s two-tone designs, exterior trims or the whole car, you can replace paint processes in areas where they prove costly and inefficient. Design freely with the look of stainless steel without spending on the real thing.
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Do more with trim attachment
Find new aesthetic and performance possibilities for attaching trim, badges or emblems. Solutions like 3M™ Die-Cuttable Tape Series DC2000 delivers high resistance to pluck and torque forces normally associated with the attachment of nameplates and emblems.
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Stand out from the crowd
Your vehicle offers many opportunities to communicate differentiation and brand identity. Find new possibilities to showcase your unique features and benefits and help your design break through the noise.
Boost design flexibility and even reduce process steps with our range of attachment and sealing solutions. Make each vehicle memorable thanks to a variety of aesthetics offered by trim and molding films. You can even offer trim packages with quieter, more comfortable cabins with innovative acoustic solutions.
3M solutions for personalization in exteriors and glass
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Design bold with film
Deliver the premium look and feel without the premium price. Add eye-catching accents and trim with less hassle. Films from 3M can help you make your design memorable — and last.
3M Paint Replacement Films for OEM and Tier
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Improve passenger experience with acoustic insulation
Treat customers to quieter roads ahead. 3M offers acoustic insulation solutions to help manage road and tire noise, shed weight and more.
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Boost curb appeal with tape attachment options
Tapes allow the seamless attachment of exterior trim parts such as badges and emblems. They enable smooth bond lines and won't disrupt the aesthetics, unlike pins and clips. Find the look you need with a variety of automotive acrylic foam tapes from 3M.
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Materials made for the long road ahead
The road is unforgiving. Over time, weather and normal use can lead to damage caused by UV exposure, hail, scratches, chips or auto fluid stains across the vehicle exterior. Shouldn’t your materials help hold up to environmental challenges?
At 3M, we offer many different materials to help promote durability. Instead of punching holes in the sheet metal, you can create a continuous seal using adhesive, to keep the airflow, dust and water outside of the vehicle and keep all the airflow, dust and water outside. Resist chipping, scratching, staining and discoloration (yellowing) to protect paint and other vulnerable surfaces with films.
3M solutions for durability in exteriors and glass
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Skip the clips, maintain a strong bond
Attach delicate components like thin sensor frames with confidence. Eliminate potential of read-through caused by ultrasonic welding. Acrylic foam tapes from 3M can help you do more.
3M Acrylic Foam Tapes for OEM and Tier
Still using mechanical fasteners? Using a tape for seal attachment provides continuous, secure attachment of the seal compared to mechanical attachments alone. Avoid potential corrosion and vibration, and buzz, squeak and rattle (BSR) issues.
At 3M, we offer tapes designed for attaching door seals, weatherstripping and gasket materials like ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber/thermoplastic elastomers (EPDM/TPE) and Santoprene® thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV), neoprene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to automotive exterior surfaces.
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Santoprene® is a registered trademark of Celanese.
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Quick, reliable fastening to glass
This is one of the many ways 3M works with you to eliminate the steps and the challenges of bonding with urethane. 3M™ Structural Bonding Tape is pre-applied to a wide range of OEM hardware including:
- Mirror buttons
- Locator pins
- Sensor brackets
- Combo brackets
Adhesive bonds quickly to glass without added fixturing. It heat-cures during standard autoclave processes.
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Design for longevity with film solutions
Make your look last. Think to the future knowing films from 3M can guard against environmental weathering and aging.
3M Paint Replacement Films for OEM and Tier
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Achieve your vision. Protect it, too.
You look to enhance and maintain a vehicle’s appearance with cutting-edge design. You also need to protect paint on vulnerable surfaces like wheel flares and rocker panels from external environmental elements like dust and moisture. 3M is here to help.
With film from 3M, the possibilities for exterior design and protection seem endless. Enjoy long-term aesthetics with exterior trim film. With robust weatherability and strong, reliable adhesion, paint replacement films enable designs intended to last the life of the vehicle.
3M solutions for functionality and protection in exteriors and glass
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Boost efficiency when fastening to glass
Our tapes incorporate advanced adhesives designed to bond quickly to glass with no added fixturing needed. The tapes are die cut and pre-applied to hardware such as rearview mirror components and sensor brackets to improve process efficiency.
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Protect exterior designs with film
Films from 3M provide design and functional benefits. Whether you need a paint alternative or to provide protection, 3M films can help you maintain your design features like two-tone body colors and unique trim and moldings, and help keep them looking great for longer.
3M Paint Replacement Films for OEM and Tier
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Manage external sound with acoustic insulation
Noisy cabins immediately impact passenger experience. And as more vehicles become hybrid and fully electric, road and tire noise become even more of a concern. 3M has a range of acoustic insulation solutions to help you manage cabin experience and pass-by noise.
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Accelerate your sustainability goals
At 3M, we understand sustainability goals may look different from one OEM to the next. Whether you’re working with a new regulation or are appealing to customer trends, 3M can help you with a range of design needs across exteriors and glass applications.
Reduce volatile organic compound (VOC) use, explore lighter-weight parts, reduce manufacturing impact, increase recycled content and more. 3M has many different options for you to work toward your sustainability targets.
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Try primerless attachment
Help simplify the production process and reduce the cost of chemical disposal, labor and equipment associated with primer usage with 3M™ Acrylic Foam Tape PX5000 Series. It can also help with the cost of poor quality when primer is improperly applied.
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Options for sound management with sustainability benefits
Our range of acoustic solutions not only help you mitigate noise across key frequencies, they can help lightweight your vehicle. Products like 3M™ Flexile Acoustic Material FAB Series contain at least 15% renewable resources, and feature low VOCs and low fogging for added benefits.
3M Acoustic Insulation for OEM and Tier
*Odor results only applicable to 3M™ Flexile Acoustic Material FAB0910 and 3M™ Flexile Acoustic Material FAB1210.
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Lightweight your vehicle with glass bubbles
Extend EV battery range and more. 3M™ Glass Bubbles replace heavy fillers in a range of automotive applications, including thermoplastic parts, adhesives, sealants and composites, and can handle processes like injection molding, to help reduce weight. Find them in in a range of densities, compressive strengths and particle sizes.
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Some of today’s most advanced vehicles call for the windshield to function as an information display. You need crisp, clear information to seamlessly help the driver day and night, and display systems ready to endure solar heat.
Manage light and heat with reflective films from 3M. They can help increase brightness and contrast, and even reflect harmful infrared light away from critical electronics.
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Automotive design and technical expertise on a global scale
Almost since the first automobiles, 3M continues to develop new materials to help our customers create new possibilities. That means our world-class design, technical and engineering expertise just comes with the territory. If you have a design in mind, we’ll help you make it happen. If you have a particular bonding and sealing challenge, we can help you solve it. Let’s work together on the future of automotive design and manufacturing.
