Search Results

The Automotive Composites Consortium has initiated the third of a series of focal projects, which is a multi-year program to develop a design and manufacturing strategy for a composite intensive body-in-white (BIW) with aggressive mass reduction, manufacturing cycle time, and cost parity targets. Specifically, the BIW is to exhibit 60% minimum mass savings over the conventional steel baseline, contain the same package space as the baseline, meet or exceed the structural performance, and have cost parity to the baseline in volumes exceeding 100,000 per annum. The Department of Energy's Office of Advanced Automotive Technology provided most of the funding for this project. A design study was undertaken to evaluate whether the mass savings are feasible - utilizing carbon-fiber composites - without sacrificing structural performance. The design was conducted with consideration to cost-effective composites manufacturing processes that are under development.

The desire to use lightweight materials to reduce weight in automotive structures has resulted in the need to develop new fastening technologies. The use of welds, screw type fasteners, and bolted joints traditionally used in solely metallic structures may be inappropriate for many polymeric and composite structural components. With this in mind, an obvious alternative fastening technology would include adhesive joints. To make use of adhesive joints, and ultimately the wide class of lightweight materials, it is necessary to understand all aspects of this attachment technology, including the adhesives that comprise the joint. This work will focus on the mechanical response of a candidate automotive adhesive. Specifically, predictive relationships between creep and fatigue response will be developed and verified through comparison with experimental results.