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Newly appointed DuPont Automotive Performance Materials marketing and development director in the Americas, Karla Butler, joins a panel at the inaugural Automotive News Green Car Conference, Nov. 13 in Detroit, to discuss the role of new materials, efficiency and other means to reduce automotive energy demands.

During this panel discussion, Butler will focus on several DuPont Automotive sustainable mobility initiatives, including the introduction of a growing number of renewably sourced material solutions and advanced metals replacement technologies, which today includes “SuperStructural” thermoplastic solutions and MetaFuse™ nanometal/polymer hybrids – a new metal-over-plastics technology used to manufacture extremely lightweight components that offer strength and stiffness of metal with the design flexibility inherent with plastics.

“Automakers are looking for new materials and technology to help improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions without compromising performance,” said Keith J. Smith, vice president and general manager – DuPont Engineering Polymers. “DuPont, with its science and innovation focus and globally linked R&D network, is strongly positioned to enable collaboration that can bring those new technologies to market faster and more cost-effectively.”

Recent energy-related initiatives from DuPont include solutions for alternative fuels, from battery storage solutions for hybrid technology through photovoltaics and fuel cells, as well as renewably sourced materials and science-based solutions to help automakers reduce vehicle weight and fight friction to achieve better fuel economy and reduce CO2 emission.

“The drive to reduce weight for better fuel economy and reduced CO2 to meet sustainable mobility challenges is inviting many companies to rethink the design and manufacture and many components and systems,” Butler said. “This drive to meet sustainability goals opens up our capability to collaborate and help with materials and development resources and bring new ideas to market.”

Highlights of some new products and programs from DuPont Automotive:

Renewably Sourced thermoplastics – DuPont™ Sorona® polymers for carpets, headliners and seat fabrics and DuPont™ Sorona® EP, DuPont™ Hytrel® RS and DuPont™ Zytel® RS for components made of plastics all include renewably sourced bio-based ingredients and can deliver additional benefits, such as improved stain resistance, appearance and better durability when compared to their petroleum-based counterparts.

Advanced Metals Replacement – A growing portfolio of solutions and expertise that design engineers can access to help reduce weight, integrate function and improve overall cost position in structural applications, ranging from steering columns support brackets to stabilizer bars, and under the hood, where many metal-to-plastic conversion opportunities remain.

“These initiatives, along with many others to help reduce friction in drivelines, are designed to help the industry in its all-consuming drive to reduce weight for fuel savings and CO2 reductions while improving the overall cost position of new systems and components,” Butler said. “Critical to the successful adoption of new technologies is the value chain, and never before has it been more important that we align along those critical links to help focus on meeting demands for new technology at a cost that consumers will ultimately value.”

As DuPont Automotive Performance Materials marketing and development director in the Americas, Butler is responsible for leading the team of business developers, designers and technical experts who work throughout the value chain to develop new components and systems using the company’s extensive portfolio of engineering plastics. Based in Troy, Michigan, she also leads automotive market development activity with other DuPont businesses in electronics, advanced fibers, glass laminating products and OEM coatings.

“Karla brings a wealth of experience earned through leadership roles in marketing, sales, business and product development for many of the markets that DuPont Engineering Polymers serves,” Smith said. “These insights and her teambuilding skills can help strengthen our focus, which is to bring DuPont science, technology and innovation to the automotive market to help meet sustainable mobility challenges.”

Butler replaces Christopher S. Murphy, who is promoted to global accounts director – DuPont Engineering Polymers responsible for developing growth programs in the automotive, industrial and consumer markets.

Butler joined DuPont in 1990 as part of the field engineering program, an early-career engineering and leadership development program, where she held manufacturing and leadership assignments in the DuPont fibers business.

Two years later, Butler joined the Engineering Polymers business where she held several leadership and management positions that helped her earn extensive experience in strategic planning, product management and market development for the consumer, industrial and automotive industries. Karla was asked to lead the Americas automotive group in 2008.

Butler was certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt in 2004 and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University in 1989.

DuPont – one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals 18 years ago – has broadened its sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research and development investment. The goals are tied directly to business growth, specifically to the development of safer and environmentally improved new products for key global markets.

DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.

DuPont™ Sorona®, DuPont™ Sorona® EP, DuPont™ Hytrel® RS and DuPont™ Zytel® RS contain a minimum of 20% and a maximum of 100% renewably sourced ingredient by weight.

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