Load floors are the flat panels in the vehicle trunk on which luggage and cargo is placed. Normally carpet-covered components, they can be lightweight, composite panels where high strength is a priority (usually found in SUVs and station wagon / estate cars), or a simpler aesthetic covering of the loadspace floor, as typically found in sedans / saloon cars.
ACT is able to manufacture a range of lightweight loadfloors including,
- Composite structural panels sandwich products in glass fibre / polyurethane or natural fibre / bio-resin. These ultra-lightweight panels can be either supplied laminated with a non-woven carpet material or post-processed to incorporate carpet, wipe-clean materials like TPO or other coverings. ACT have installed the only automated, robotic loadfloor cell in the UK to make these high-performance products and we supply hundreds of thousands of these parts throughout the UK and Europe
- Simple loadfloors, single layer products commonly formed from materials such as hardboard, fluted polypropylene, honeycomb polypropylene or natural fibre / polypropylene panels.
The advantages of working with ACT:-
- ACT’s great location, near the UK‘s automotive hubs, can minimise the logistics costs of shipping these relatively bulky parts from overseas providing outstanding value-for-money to UK-based Tier 1 suppliers and their customers.
- Our cost-effectiveness is proven by the fact we regularly export these products to plants in mainland Europe
- Given the vehicle manufacturer’s specific loading and durability requirements, ACT can propose the most suitable loadfloor material to provide the best value-for-money
- We can manufacture-to-print, or offer a full IATF:16949 standard design and product development service
- We can incorporate handles (often moulded in our injection moulding facility to reduce costs yet further) and other features such as straps, clips and hinges
- We can offer reversible wipe-clean load floors
- As the UK’s largest manufacturer of bio-composite panels, we can offer these novel ‘green’ materials to improve a vehicle’s sustainability credentials
- As well as our robotic cells, we have also recently installed additional modern manual presses, to suit low volume projects
ACT has vast experience both with traditional PU/GF composite loadfloors and now also with Bio-composite systems. At ACT we use natural fibre (flax) and bio-resin (sugar) to produce our sustainable bio-composite panels [NF/Bio]. The PU/GF products are lightweight and immensely strong and excellent at coping with complex geometries. Our NF/Bio panels have a much lower environmental impact* and embedded energy and could have a significant role in the complete life cycle [LCA] analysis of the carbon footprint of our customers vehicles. Recent developments in NF/Bio indicate significant further weight savings for the same strength and modern coatings have provided outstanding water/humidity resistance.
* as measured independently using the ‘shadow price’ method
Please contact us to discuss your next Load floor project.
Get in touch