SEAT held the second edition of its Innovation Day—an event focused on identifying and encouraging the spirit of innovation among the company’s own employees. Among the ideas, visions and projects presented by SEAT during the event is Ku-Fizz, a physical foam technology that reduces the weight of plastic parts, improving current technologies.

Ku-Fizz introduces gas in injected parts to generate a foamy structure in the interior. In this way, less plastic and injection material is used, lightening the weight of these parts and at the same time reducing the carbon footprint, production times and costs.

Another innovation project highlighted during the event was Oryzite, a pilot project based on the circular economy that researches the use of rice husks to replace plastic products, with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint.

More than 700 million tonnes of rice are harvested worldwide each year. Twenty per cent of this is rice husks, some 140 million tonnes which are largely discarded. This new raw material is being tested in the linings of the SEAT Leon.

The tests consist in modeling some parts of the car, such as the rear hatch lining, the double load floor of the trunk or the ceiling headliner with rice husks mixed with polyurethanes and polypropylenes.

At first glance they do not differ in any way from those made with conventional technology, but they actually weigh much less.