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Blending polypropylene (PP) with materials such as rubber or filler creates compound PP, which is widely used in auto parts because of its balanced physical properties, formability, and cost performance. Recently non-painting of parts, namely coloring the raw materials, is being investigated as a method of reducing the cost of exterior parts which have conventionally been painted to match body colors, which are mostly metallic now. However flow marks often form in long injection molded parts such as the side protection molding, causing remarkable decreases in exterior appearance quality. This research investigates the influence of metallic coloring of PP material (blending PP and metallic pigment) factors on flow marks, as well as countermeasures for those causes of flow marks. PP and metallic pigment characteristics were the factors investigated to evaluate flow mark level.

An experiment was conducted with a direct injection Diesel engine operated with neat dimethyl ether (DME). Main focus of this research is to investigate the performance of the catalysts designed for NOx reduction, such as Co–alumina and Sn–alumina catalysts, for the reduction of NOX and other unburned species contained in the exhaust gas. In the experiments, DME concentration in the exhaust gas was changed by adding extra DME before the catalytic reactor, which is the important experimental parameter in the research. Results showed that NOX reduction rate was not so high without any DME addition, because the content of unburned DME, reducing agent, is very low in the DME engine exhaust gas. However, NOX reduction rate increased with increase in DME content and it reached around 80% with enough DME addition. The NOX reduction rate increased with increase in reaction temperature up to around 300 °C.

This paper describes the extensive effort and progress made by the Toyo Kogyo Company in developing emission control systems applicable to small vehicles with small displacement reciprocating engines, in order to achieve the very stringent targets established by the IIEC program. Three concept emission package systems have been selected as showing promise to achieve the targets, and these packages have been under evaluation for emission performance and durability in the total vehicle systems, which were experimentally built. These package systems incorporate component systems such as thermal reactors, EGR, catalytic converters, and other subcomponents to assist these main component systems. Despite the effort made to date, none of these package systems have reached the stage of satisfying the HC/CO targets over extended vehicle mileage, or the NOx target, even at zero vehicle miles. The durability of these package systems has been revealed as unsatisfactory.