A large roof cover door for an air conditioning unit of a mass transit bus made from thermoplastic composite materials was designed and analyzed. The comparison was with respect to a baseline aluminum version. The design concept featured incorporating lightweight thermoplastic polyolefin and glass mat PP materials in a thermoforming processing operation. The detailed design demonstrated; (a) 77% less free standing deformation than the current aluminum design, when propped open with the extender arm; (b) weight savings in the order of 40% were demonstrated compared to the existing aluminum design; (c) thermoplastic materials that enabled painting as required for mass transit applications; and (d) sound absorption and damping characteristics of the thermoplastic materials were an order of magnitude higher than the aluminum baseline. A separate paper will deal with manufacturing details of the thermoplastic AC cover roof door.
Innovative structural thermoplastic air conditioning roof cover door for mass transit bus
Innovative Strukturthermoplast-Dachklappe für Luftkonditionierung im Nahverkehrsbus
2007
6 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006
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