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You're looking for ways to make vehicles lighter. 3M Glass Bubbles deliver in places you may not expect. These tiny soda-lime-borosilicate glass microspheres are available in a range of densities, compressive strengths and particle sizes. They can replace heavy fillers, such as calcium carbonate, for lightweighting common materials like thermoplastic parts, adhesives, sealants, and composites such as SMC/BMC. What’s more, many grades of 3M Glass Bubbles can survive thermoset, extrusion, injection molding and high-pressure spray application processes – making them excellent for plastisols, structural foams and plastic parts for lighter weight all across the vehicle.
3M Glass Bubbles can also be incorporated into lightweight, thermally insulative fillers for potting resins in EV battery packs. Let’s talk about your lightweighting needs. To determine which grade is best for your application, use the chart below. Or, contact a 3M expert.
Download our brochure: 3M™ Glass Bubbles for the automotive market (PDF, 4.44 MB)
Producing lightweight materials with 3M Glass Bubbles can go a long way toward meeting sustainability targets, and for OEMs. Lighter weight plastics, composites and fillers can help improve fuel economy, increasing electric battery range and meeting stringent global fuel efficiency requirements. And lightweight materials such as seams sealers and underbody coatings can potentially help OEMs lower their carbon footprint from sourced materials.
Learn more about lightweighting with 3M Glass Bubbles in specific applications.
3M Glass Bubbles are used as additives in an astonishing variety of products. For example, they can be formulated into quick-drying, low-shrinkage spackling and other construction materials. 3M Glass Bubbles reduce the weight of cement used to reinforce oil wells and are used in underwater pipe insulation, helping improve the oil extraction process and making it possible to extract more oil from the bottom of the sea. They provide a wide range of additional benefits in applications ranging from sporting goods to solar heat reflective paint.
In the automotive industry, weight reduction is an important design factor. That’s why more and more vehicle part suppliers are taking advantage of the lightweighting and performance enhancing capabilities of 3M Glass Bubbles.
3M Glass Bubbles for use in automotive applications:
We offer many different grades of Glass Bubbles which can be tailored to your application requirements. Contact us to discover which grade may be best suited for your needs.
The benefits of lightweighting have an obvious impact in the automotive sector, including the benefit from the lower cost of shipping light weight parts. In addition, some plastics made with 3M™ Glass Bubbles may be recyclable and can be re-ground and added in virgin material with negligible effect on properties. The 3M Glass Bubble portion of these plastics raises few, if any, issues during disposal, because they are made from an inert glass and entrapped in the material matrix.
No matter where you are in the world, we have sales & technical support to help you. You can either Contact Us or Request a Sample now online to get started.
There are many benefits of using 3M Glass Bubbles, including:
In manufacturing:
In the vehicle:
Some of these other benefits may be more important than lightweighting in some applications within power electronics, EV batteries or even 5G connected electronics.
3M Glass Bubbles are used to make low density materials and can help to achieve up to 45% weight savings, depending on application. Potential weight savings in common applications include up to 15% in thermoplastics, 40% in seam sealants and underbody coatings, and 45% in sheet or bulk molding composites.
While the properties of the main polymer matrix largely determine the properties of the compound, fillers and additives can have significant effects.
3M™ Glass Bubbles have many positive impacts on the resin system, including decreasing density, warpage and shrinkage while increasing modulus, heat deflection temperature and scratch resistance. These fillers can impact properties like tensile and flexural strength. Our expert Application Engineers can help you formulate your system to ensure you get the maximum benefit of 3M™ Glass Bubbles while still maintaining needed physical properties.
The benefits of lightweighting have an obvious impact in the automotive sector, including the benefit from the lower cost of shipping light weight parts. In addition, some plastics made with 3M™ Glass Bubbles may be recyclable and can be re-ground and added in virgin material with negligible effect on properties. The 3M Glass Bubble portion of these plastics raises few, if any, issues during disposal, because they are made from an inert glass and entrapped in the material matrix.
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3M™ Glass Bubble HGS7K32N
3M Stock
B5005577022
3M™ Glass Bubble S32HSN
3M Stock
B5005577020
Alternative ID
S32HSN
3M™ Glass Bubbles K20HS
3M Stock
B5005217016
3M™ Glass Bubble S32HS
3M Stock
B5005035032
Alternative ID
S32HS
3M™ Glass Bubbles S60
3M Stock
B40064607
Alternative ID
S60
3M™ Glass Bubbles S28HS
3M Stock
B40064646
Alternative ID
S28HS
