APPLICATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES TO THE TASKS

AND ACTIVITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL INTERNSHIP ACCREDITATION

1. Overview of the IMDS Department

International Material Data System (IMDS) Department is mainly responsible for
Products Materials Content & Recyclability Reporting (PMCRR) of Lear Corporation.
PMCRR, also known as IMDS reporting is a customer requirement enforced on suppliers
as a result of legal requirements at different parts of the world. Lear has to disclose
content of every product shipped to customers before launch and with every Production
Part Approval Process (PPAP). The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is used in
the automotive supply chain to establish confidence in component suppliers and their
production processes, by demonstrating that all customer engineering design record and
specification requirements are properly understood by the supplier and that the process
has the potential to produce product consistently meeting these requirements during an
actual production run at the quoted production rate. Among the worldwide legal
regulations that require reporting of material content of automotive parts are as follows:

European End of Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive: This regulation came into
effect in European Union (EU) in September 2000. Usage of lead, cadmium,
mercury, and hexavalent chromium is prohibited except the applications listed
in Annex II. This regulation also requires cost free vehicle take back after end
of life.
Annex II of ELV Directive: This document lists automotive applications that
are currently exempt from using lead, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent
chromium.

Japanese Automobile Recycling Law: This law is similar to the ELV Directive
in Europe, and was put in place in 2003.

Korean Electrical/Electronic Products and Automobiles Resource Recycling

Law (Draft): This law is similar to the RoHS and ELV Directive in Europe.

Brominated Flame Retardants Prohibition Directive: A copy of EU Directive

on prohibiting use of Penta- and Octa-PBDE in polymers.

Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS) Directive: This is an EU

Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in
electrical and electronic equipment

Waste from Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) Directive: A copy

of EU Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment

Service Parts/Spare Parts Directive: A copy of EU Directive on service or

spare parts used on automotive application

PFOS Prohibition Directive: A copy of EU Directive on prohibiting the use of

PFOS (Perfluorooctanate Sulfonates)

2. Process Flows of IMDS Reporting

Lear uses one reporting system worldwide which is shown in the figure below.
Material data reporting revolves around the supplier chain as the material data report is
provided by the supplying company and used by purchasing company until the total
material data is reported to the end customer, which is the automotive manufacturer. The
material data submitted by the suppliers, based on bill of materials (BOM) provided by
Engineering team of all Lear plants are process by the IMDS Department for submission
to customers. Until the IMDS submission is the approved and accepted by the customers,
the PPAP package will not be accepted and the products manufactured by Lear plants
cannot be shipped or delivered.

Suppliers
Submissions of
Material Data to
Lear

Engineering
Team
Provision
Bill of
Materials

Material Data
Processing
by
Lear Philippines
Engineering
and Technology
Center
(PETC)

PPAP
Submissions
to
Customers via
IMDS
IMDS
Submissions
to
Customers

Additional
Information
to
Customers

The flow material data processing of prior to submission to customers proceeds as

shown in the figure below. The data submitted by the supplier is initially tracked in a
database for submission status. The material data is then evaluated for presence of
restricted and prohibited substance where these substances are tracked for recyclability
and disposal information. The material data is then assessed if the restricted and
prohibited substance content is within the threshold given by various worldwide legal
regulations and compliant to customer specifications. The material data then undergoes
validation if the material content reported follows the given reporting structure format or
if the material content reported is reasonable according the actual part based on material
science norms and customer specifications. After the validation of the material data from

suppliers, these constructed into a material data tree based on bill of materials of the
automotive parts. Recyclate information, summarized restricted substance content and
disposal information are then provided before submission of the part to the customer.

Tracking of
Material Data
Submission

Evaluation of
restricted and
prohibited
substances per
material data

Assessment of
restricted and
prohibited
substances
content

Provision of
recyclability and
disposal information
for Lear products

Validation of
material data
content

Construction of
material data tree
of Lear products
from supplier
material data

3. Application of Chemical Engineering Principles to IMDS Reporting

In reporting of material data content of automotive parts through IMDS,
Chemical Engineering knowledge is essential as most of the tasks involved requires
background in general organic and organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, stoichiomety,
material balance, material science disciplines like polymer science, and metallurgy.
Environmental engineering concepts is also necessary on the assessment of aspect and
impact of restricted and prohibited substances to the environment and their toxic effects
to the environment.
Tracking material data submission deals with transferring of material data from
global IMDS website to in-house Lear material compliance central. ChE skills applies the
verification of acquired material data to the actual supplied product, in the initial
investigation of these parts or products to its laboratory analysis information. There are
also cases where ChE shills is required support both suppliers and Lear plant contacts to
report to the IMDS website based on the laboratory analysis data and material safety data
sheet (MSDS) of these products. In the evaluation of restricted and prohibited substances

of the parts based on material data, ChE skills like material balance and stoichiometry is
applicable in the tracking of these substances and collating it under its main compounds
family of the four heavy metals lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium.
In the assessment of the restricted and prohibited substances, general knowledge
of both inorganic and organic chemistry and material science is required to identify the
specific substance content detail of the material data report with their respective
percentage content and verify these based on existing restricted substance list of various
legal regulations as enumerated in section 1. These restricted and prohibited substances
have their respective threshold of varying allowable percentages for varying material
classifications and product applications. In the validation of material data content,
knowledge of material science disciplines like polymer science and metallurgy in the
verification of the substances reported for raw materials of components and subassemblies. Knowledge of these material science disciplines is especially necessary in
determining the structure of material data reports, the optimum and reliable disclosure of
the substance content and the logical substance content reporting of the material data
based on the material classification (e.g. polymer substance polyamide 66 should be
reported under polyamide material and not under steel materials). Information for raw
materials are also checked for accuracy like its material classification (e.g. butadiene
rubber should be classified as elastomers and not as ceramics), material symbol (e.g.
PBT, SBR) and material number (e.g. SAE 1010, ASTM 1910) based on global standards
like International Organization for Standards (ISO), Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE), Automotive Industry Alliance Group (AIAG) and existing customer
specifications.
In the construction of the material data tree based on provided bill of materials
(BOM), similar ChE skills are required, with these time proper emphasis of material
balance and stoichiometry as it is necessary that the materials enumerated in the (BOM)
should be reported and with accurate information of its weight, usage, dimensions and
quantity. It is also important that the substance content of these material data are
compliant with respect to its restricted substance content and validated with proper
material data structure. Similarly, additional validation of the material data is needed
should there have been special requirements or waivers on the customer side. In
providing the recyclability and disposal information of the material data tree, knowledge
of environmental engineering is applicable in assessment of aspects and impacts of Lear
products based on their material and substance content. Based on the material data report,
the recyclate information of the part is estimated and the disposal information based on
ELV guidelines is provided. Additional important information that are requested by the
customers for reporting included presence of the 4 heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium
and hexavalent chromium), flame retardants, polymeric fillers and impact modifiers,
alloying elements for metals, material classification reports (e.g. plastics, steel,
elastomer) and marking of polymeric parts (e.g. plastic, elastomer and textile), among
others. Eventually, aside from legal and government compliance, both Lear and the
customers will look upon these material data as considerations of the design for
environment (DFE) of the automotive parts to design and produce parts that are

environment-friendly, recyclable, can be reprocessed, and have less adverse impact to

environment when disposed.