Lightweight design and weight reduction of the body-in-white (BIW) cannot always be measured in kilograms, but also has to be related to the achieved vehicle dimension and functional requirements. The functional requirements for stiffness, crash, and car lifetime have to be considered when selecting the materials for a body in white. The stiffness of a structure can be influenced by the E-modulus and panel thickness. Crash and vehicle lifetime demands, which are both driven by the strength of the material, can be affected by high strength steel grades. The paper provides a look at the basic requirements of functional design of a body in white, as well as the development of steel grades applied in several cars over the past few years. In order to benchmark the efforts for lightweight engineering, the specific lightweight coefficient L is developed. The weight saving benefit is shown, as well as special demands related to manufacturing issues. Finally, structural foams as a lightweight solution to increase stiffness are addressed. As a conclusion, advanced high strength, ultra high strength steel grades as well as aluminum or in some special cases even plastic or carbon fiber can be used to solve the conflict between weight increasing efforts for passive safety and comfort on the one hand and driving performance and fuel consumption on the other hand. To handle the new materials within the process chain press shop - body shop - paint shop and corrosion, several issues involving the material in combination with coatings and lubrication have to be taken into account. These may be press forces, design of tools, joining technologies as well as adhesion of adhesive bonding and corrosion. Last but not least, the average minimum yield strength Rp0.2 of a body in white can be taken as the value that shows the development of steel grades over a longer period of time. Due to increasing demands on cars for crash, drivability as well as power and torque of the engines, it can be assumed that the average minimum yield strength of a body in white will increase with the next car concepts e.g the proportion of higher strength and ultra high strength steel grades will increase.
Functional design of a "lightweight body in white" - how to determine body in white materials according to structural requirements
Funktionale Gestaltung einer 'Leichtbau-Karosserie' - Werkstoffauswahl ausgehend von den strukturellen Anforderungen
2006
18 Seiten, 24 Bilder, 8 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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