[Report] 'Combining 4 Sheets of Yuri Fiber Tape Makes It Stronger Than Steel'... Ushering in the Plastic Electric Vehicle Era

SK Geocentric Develops 'UD Tape'
Establishes Dedicated Department and Begins Full-Scale Commercialization This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seoyoon] #Electric vehicles are heavy. It's because of the battery. The car becomes 200kg heavier. The case cover that holds the battery pack is also made of heavy steel. The life of an electric vehicle depends on how long and how far it can run on a single charge. Maximizing driving range is important, but if the vehicle is heavy, fuel efficiency decreases.

[Report] 'Combining 4 Sheets of Yuri Fiber Tape Makes It Stronger Than Steel'... Ushering in the Plastic Electric Vehicle Era

UD Tape
Photo by SK Geocentric

#From 2030, to export products to the United States and Europe, it will be mandatory to use at least 30% recycled plastic in both the product itself and its packaging. Violations will incur a fine of 300,000 KRW per ton in the UK.

As governments worldwide strengthen decarbonization policies, companies have started to face challenges. SK Innovation’s petrochemical affiliate, SK Geocentric, has come up with an answer after long deliberation.

It is an eco-friendly plastic called 'UD (Unidirectional) Tape' that replaces steel. It is as strong as steel but five times lighter. It melts with heat and is 100% recyclable. It also has high resilience. It does not break upon impact and restores to its original shape. It is a dream material. It was introduced to the world around 2012. As eco-friendliness, carbon reduction, and lightweighting have become key themes across industries, it has gained attention.

UD Tape is a material made by combining the company’s main plastic, polypropylene (PP), with glass fibers. Based on high-performance polypropylene (HCPP), SK Geocentric developed a manufacturing process for high-performance UD Tape. This is SK Geocentric’s differentiating factor. SK Geocentric’s HCPP is an eco-friendly product that can reduce plastic usage by about 10% compared to general-purpose PP. It holds the number one market share in China. It’s not just about good materials. They design PP tailored to customer needs to produce UD Tape. This is possible because they manufacture PP themselves. They also received the ‘CES Innovation Award’ this year.

Moon Yong-rak, head of the marketing team at SK Geocentric Lightweight Solutions Division, who developed UD tape, is looking at a UD tape sample.
[Photo by Choi Seo-yoon]

How is plastic stronger than steel made? On the 1st, we visited SK Innovation’s Environmental Science and Technology Institute in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. In one corner of the laboratory, long white threads were being pulled into an extruder. These are glass fibers?glass drawn into thin fibers like threads.

It takes bundling 4,000 strands of glass fiber to reach the thickness of a human hair. Using machinery, these glass fibers are spread wide to form a sheet. PP is applied between the sheets. At a high temperature of 220 degrees Celsius, PP penetrates between the glass fibers.

After forming into tape shape and cooling, the thin thread-like glass fibers become a wide UD Tape resembling a mat. It can be drawn out indefinitely. This is the company’s unique know-how.

Combining four sheets of 0.25mm UD Tape makes it stronger than steel. The tensile strength of UD Tape (the force it can withstand before breaking) is 800?1000 MPa (megapascals). The tensile strength of high-strength steel sheets, key to automotive lightweighting, is 570 MPa. One MPa means it can withstand 10 kg per square centimeter. This means UD Tape is up to 75% stronger than steel. It is also lighter than steel. If made into a 1 cm³ cube, steel weighs 7.6?7.8g, while UD Tape weighs 1.5g. This means it is both stronger and lighter.

Glass fibers used in UD tape
Photo by Choi Seoyoon

It can be up to 65% lighter than regular steel. Joo Won-cheol, a researcher at the Environmental Science and Technology Institute’s Eco-friendly Product Solutions Center, said, “The higher the glass fiber content, the more difficult the technology becomes,” and added, “At the prototype level, we secured technology to adjust the glass fiber content ratio and developed various UD Tapes.”

The company officially started the UD Tape business this year. The business is led by Moon Yong-rak, Marketing Team Leader of SK Geocentric’s Lightweight Solutions Division, who developed UD Tape. Moon, who was previously focused on research, was assigned to lead the business division. The company is also pushing forward with building a production plant, aiming for completion in early 2025.

Moon said, “We have expanded our eco-friendly solution business customer base to all industries that need to reduce carbon emissions,” and added, “Earlier this year, the department name was changed from Automotive Division to Lightweight Solutions Division.”

Researcher Juwon Cheol from the Eco-friendly Product Solution Center at the Environmental Science and Technology Institute is examining the freshly produced UD tape.
[Photo by Choi Seoyoon]

SK Geocentric provides eco-friendly solutions to its customers. Typically, petrochemical companies supply materials, and customers manufacture the products themselves. SK Geocentric broke this mold. They calculate and provide carbon emission contribution figures that must be reported to regulatory authorities and manufacture customer products using UD Tape. Recently, they conducted a demonstration project with a domestic courier company.

The steel cargo box of a delivery vehicle was replaced with UD Tape. Two layers of UD Tape match the strength of steel, but to ease unfamiliar customers, four layers were laminated. The vehicle’s weight was reduced by 100 kg. This means it can carry 100 kg more goods. The lighter vehicle also improved fuel efficiency. Moon explained, “This resulted in annual fuel cost savings of 4.1 billion KRW and a reduction of 5,750 tons of CO2 emissions,” adding, “Using UD Tape means cost savings.”

Well-known global companies are lining up to buy it. SK Geocentric is collaborating with top 10 global automakers on interior and exterior material development. Negotiations with European automakers have already progressed significantly. They are also developing lightweight UD Tape containers to replace steel containers for logistics companies. They are planning to enter the urban air mobility (UAM) business, where lightweight technology is essential.

The UD Tape market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 11.4%. Market research firm MarketsandMarkets predicted that the global UD Tape market size, which was $194 million (about 242.7 billion KRW) in 2021, will reach $332 million (about 415.3 billion KRW) by 2026.