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Styrene Maleic Anhydride (SMA), typically glass reinforced, is widely used in automotive for interior trim and instrument panels. However presently available materials are not able to fill all of the increasing demands for both toughness and temperature resistance that are being required by automotive OEM's due to higher quality requirements, passive restraint legislation, and increased global competition. This paper will review a new family of SMA's that, due to differences in the manufacturing process and formulation, are available with a wider window of available temperature resistance and toughness properties. The properties of these materials will be reviewed along with comparisons to other materials such as existing SMA's, polycarbonates, modified poly phenylene oxides/ethers, ABS and other commonly used plastics for interior trim applications. Interior applications, along with their requirements, where these materials have found use will also be reviewed.

This paper will review materials used for bearing and wear applications, test methods used to characterize materials, wear, friction and pressure - velocity (PV) data at both ambient and elevated temperatures along with applications for these materials. Much of these data, particularly at elevated temperatures, has recently been generated using specialized equipment designed for this purpose. Materials reviewed will include acetal and nylon for low load bearing applications, molybdenum disulphide and PTFE modified materials for medium loads and newer higher temperature materials for higher loads and temperatures such as 46 Nylon, Polyamide-imide (PAI) and PEEK.