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Thermoplastics have been used increasingly for automobile components for both interior and under-the-hood applications. The plastic parts are made through various molding process such as compression molding, injection molding and blow molding. For parts with large or complicated geometry, small portions of the part may have to be molded first, then joined together using a welding process. The welded regions usually exhibit inhomogeneous and inferior mechanical performance compared to the bulk regions due to the differences in thermal history. The microstructures and mechanical properties of welded thermoplastics have been examined using hot-plate welded polyethylene. The specimens are prepared at various thermal conditions to simulate the real welding process. The thermal properties in welds are monitored using DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) and the crystallinities are calculated.

The transmissibility technique has been traditionally used for evaluating the NVH performance of isolated, rigid structures such as the elastomer mount isolated automobile engine. The transmissibility quantity provides information on how a structure reduces vibration as subjected to dynamic loading and thereby attenuates noise. In the present study, the transmissibility is applied to a non-rigid, plastic structure - the engine cylinder-head cover module. The cover module includes primarily a thin, plate-like cover and the elastomer isolation system. At low frequencies, the cover will behave as a rigid mass and thus display a major peak at its resonant frequency. At high frequencies, the cover will vibrate as a flexible panel and thus display multiple peaks with magnitudes differing from point to point across the cover surface. As a result, the transmissibility calculated would have a spatial resolution, called the spatial transmissibility.