CpK Interior Products R&D team invents anti-viral plastics to kill COVID-19

CpK Interior Products Inc. announced today that it has developed a line of patent pending anti-viral plastics that can kill COVID-19 on material surfaces in less than one hour.

CpK, a vertically integrated Tier 1 automotive interiors company headquartered in Port Hope, Ont., invented the anti-viral plastics project in response to the coronavirus global pandemic and a call-to-action from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Knowing that customers would be concerned about the interior safety of their vehicles, FCA created the “Healthy Cabin Initiative,” challenging its suppliers to find ways to reduce the risk of coming into contact with the COVID-19 virus in automobile cabins. CpK was able to successfully invent, test, and apply for patent within 90 days of the project kickoff.

Led by CpK’s Head of R&D Dr. Gregory Farrar, the team was tasked to create material for car interiors that showed anti-viral activity. The CpK team invented cast skin materials for both the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger.

“This was no simple task, but our team had experience inventing novel materials in the past,” Farrar said. “Not only did CpK have to discover which materials could actively attack the DNA of coronavirus, we also had to navigate the stringent and timely quality and testing requirements for new automotive interior materials. A single test such as UV resistance and heat aging can typically take up to 21 days to complete, but we were able to have prototype parts sent to FCA within a month of kicking off the project.”

One of the other challenges the team faced was anti-viral testing. Most Canadian labs don’t have the infrastructure to handle Biosafety Level 3 viral pathogens like SARS-CoV-2. CpK was able to contract the ImPaKT Facility at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry to collaborate and perform testing. The ImPaKT Facility is a one-of-a-kind CL2+/CL3 facility with advanced in vivo imaging modalities, which allow researchers and industry to develop tools and methods to better understand the progression of infectious diseases, identify efficacious antimicrobial agents, develop diagnostic reagents to characterize hidden reservoirs of pathogens, and for the early and accurate detection of infections.

CpK is uniquely structured to meet a challenge like this. The company has the ability to develop, test, and manufacture raw materials, use those raw materials for injection molding and foam-in-place instrument panels, doors, and consoles, then do final assembly, sequencing, and ship the finished product to the customer.

“Because the entire supply chain from raw material to finished product is all under the same CpK umbrella, we are able to invent, test, and prototype new material with speed and agility,” said Ted Castle, CpK’s managing director. “This ability played a key role in the success of the anti-viral project.”