Continental Structural Plastics Takes Home Top Honors at SPE Innovation Awards

Auburn Hills, Michigan – November 7, 2019 —Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) announced today they received the 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Innovation Award,  Body Exterior Category,  as well as the overall Grand Award, for the carbon fiber pickup box used in the 2019 GMC Sierra Denali CarbonPro® edition.  The awards were presented on November 6 at the 49th Annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala in Livonia, Michigan.

The carbon fiber pickup box, branded CarbonPro by the customer, is the industry’s first commercial application of the material Sereebo®, a proprietary, carbon fiber nylon thermoplastic material that is fully recyclable.  The CarbonPro box delivers best-in-class dent, scratch and corrosion resistance, while saving 62 pounds over a steel box.  Its durability eliminates the need for a bed liner, saving an additional 40 pounds of mass.  In addition, the advanced manufacturing techniques used to mold Sereebo into the CarbonPro box are the first mass production technologies developed for carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics suitable for high-volume programs.

“It is an honor to receive this top innovation award from SPE,” said Steve Rooney, CEO, Continental Structural Plastics. “We are committed to leading the way for vehicle lightweighting with innovations in composite and carbon fiber formulations and component design. The CarbonPro box is an example of what can be accomplished when great teams come together to collaborate on materials and design to create something entirely new in the automotive industry.”

The CarbonPro box is the result of a long-term collaboration between General Motors, Teijin and Continental Structural Plastics.  The CarbonPro box earned the GM engineering team the company’s prestigious BOSS KETTERING award, GM’s highest award for innovation in April 2019. In May, CSP received the GM Innovation Award, which recognizes supplier innovation.  In July 2019, it was named a runner up in the 2019 Altair Enlighten Awards, and it received “Most Innovative Composite Part” at SPE’s ACCE conference in September 2018. It also received the CAMX Unsurpassed Innovation Award, and has been named a finalist in the 2020 Automotive News PACE Awards.

About Continental Structural Plastics

Continental Structural Plastics has provided leading-edge technologies in lightweight materials and composite solutions for the automotive, heavy truck, HVAC and construction industries for 50 years. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, CSP provides full-service engineering support, and holds multiple patents covering materials development and manufacturing processes. The company has operations on three continents and more than 4,200 employees. For more information, visit cspplastics.com.