3M Glass Bubblesfor OEM & Tier

3M™ Glass Bubbles for the automotive market banner

3M™ Glass Bubbles Micro technology. Major advantages.

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Discover the full sphere of automotive lightweighting

You're looking for ways to make vehicles lighter. 3M Glass Bubbles deliver in places you may not expect. These tiny soda-lime-borosilicate glass microspheres are available in a range of densities, compressive strengths and particle sizes. They can replace heavy fillers, such as calcium carbonate, for lightweighting common materials like thermoplastic parts, adhesives, sealants, and composites such as SMC/BMC. What’s more, many grades of 3M Glass Bubbles can survive thermoset, extrusion, injection molding and high-pressure spray application processes – making them excellent for plastisols, structural foams and plastic parts for lighter weight all across the vehicle.

3M Glass Bubbles can also be incorporated into lightweight, thermally insulative fillers for potting resins in EV battery packs. Let’s talk about your lightweighting needs. To determine which grade is best for your application, use the chart below. Or, contact a 3M expert.

Download our brochure: 3M™ Glass Bubbles for the automotive market (PDF, 4.4 MB)

Sustainability through lightweighting
Producing lightweight materials with 3M Glass Bubbles can go a long way toward meeting sustainability targets, and for OEMs. Lighter weight plastics, composites and fillers can help improve fuel economy, increasing electric battery range and meeting stringent global fuel efficiency requirements. And lightweight materials such as seams sealers and underbody coatings can potentially help OEMs lower their carbon footprint from sourced materials.

Learn more about lightweighting with 3M Glass Bubbles in specific applications.

Injection Molded Plastic Parts

Sheet Molding Composites (SMCs)

Seam Sealants and Underbody Coatings

EV Battery
Simulate lighter compound formulations

Do you need to significantly reduce the density of your compound formulations, leading to lighter weight parts? The weight volume calculator allows you to compare your reference compound formulation with lighter formulations that use 3M™ Glass Bubbles. Start with your reference formulation and use other recipe columns to vary polymer and filler contents. Adjust the weight percentages of ingredients to see how different formulations affect compound density and volume filling. When done, you can download a PDF summary of your formulations.

Analyse the effects of 3M™ Glass Bubbles on your reference formulation density.

Try the weight volume calculator tool

Frequently asked questions

Where can 3M Glass Bubbles be used and what 3M Glass Bubble grade would be best for my application?
3M Glass Bubbles are used as additives in an astonishing variety of products. For example, they can be formulated into quick-drying, low-shrinkage spackling and other construction materials. 3M Glass Bubbles reduce the weight of cement used to reinforce oil wells and are used in underwater pipe insulation, helping improve the oil extraction process and making it possible to extract more oil from the bottom of the sea. They provide a wide range of additional benefits in applications ranging from sporting goods to solar heat reflective paint.

In the automotive industry, weight reduction is an important design factor. That’s why more and more vehicle part suppliers are taking advantage of the lightweighting and performance enhancing capabilities of 3M Glass Bubbles.

3M Glass Bubbles for use in automotive applications:
- Sheet Molding Compound / Sheet Molding Composite (SMC)
- Bulk Molding Compound (BMC)
- Injection Molded Thermoplastics
- Reaction Injection Molding (RIM)
- Reinforced Reaction Injection Molding (RRIM)
- Sealants, Underbody Coatings, and Adhesives
- Structural Foams
- Lightweight Body Fillers
- Potting Resins
- Liquid applied sound deadeners (LASD)
We offer many different grades of 3M Glass Bubbles which can be tailored to your application requirements. Contact us to discover which grade may be best suited for your needs.
Are plastics that contain 3M Glass Bubbles recyclable?
The benefits of lightweighting have an obvious impact in the automotive sector, including the benefit from the lower cost of shipping light weight parts. In addition, some plastics made with 3M Glass Bubbles may be recyclable and can be re-ground and added in virgin material with negligible effect on properties. The 3M Glass Bubble portion of these plastics raises few, if any, issues during disposal, because they are made from an inert glass and entrapped in the material matrix.
How do I get a sample or order 3M Glass Bubbles?
No matter where you are in the world, we have sales and technical support to help you. Contact us to get started
What are the benefits of using 3M Glass Bubbles?
There are many benefits of using 3M Glass Bubbles, including:

In manufacturing:
- Cycle time & mold pressure reductions
- Dimensional stability improvement
- Good flowability enables sprayable processing
In the vehicle:
- Lightweighting
- Coefficient of thermal expansion reduction
- Thermal management
- Dielectric property improvement
Some of these other benefits may be more important than lightweighting in some applications within power electronics, EV batteries or even 5G connected electronics.

3M Glass Bubbles are used to make low density materials and can help to achieve up to 45% weight savings, depending on application. Potential weight savings in common applications include up to 15% in thermoplastics, 40% in seam sealants and underbody coatings, and 45% in sheet or bulk molding composites.
What impact do 3M Glass Bubbles have on the materials they are incorporated in?
While the properties of the main polymer matrix largely determine the properties of the compound, fillers and additives can have significant effects.

3M Glass Bubbles have many positive impacts on the resin system, including decreasing density, warpage and shrinkage while increasing modulus, heat deflection temperature and scratch resistance. These fillers can impact properties like tensile and flexural strength. Our expert Application Engineers can help you formulate your system to ensure you get the maximum benefit of 3M Glass Bubbles while still maintaining needed physical properties.
How do you formulate and process 3M Glass Bubbles, and will 3M help me with this?
The benefits of lightweighting have an obvious impact in the automotive sector, including the benefit from the lower cost of shipping light weight parts. In addition, some plastics made with 3M Glass Bubbles may be recyclable and can be re-ground and added in virgin material with negligible effect on properties. The 3M Glass Bubble portion of these plastics raises few, if any, issues during disposal, because they are made from an inert glass and entrapped in the material matrix.

3M Glass Bubbles additive optimization graph showing crush strength and density.

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