Lightweight Closure Assemblies Utilizing Structural Foam

2004-01-1514

03/08/2004

Event
SAE 2004 World Congress & Exhibition
Authors Abstract
Content
The primary goal of closure design is to achieve a functional, lightweight assembly, while also meeting stiffness, crash, and dent resistance targets. Typical automotive closure assemblies, such as liftgates, decklids, hoods, and doors, usually consist of an inner panel, outer panel, and miscellaneous reinforcements. There are also many attachment methods used; hem flange, spot-weld, laser weld, adhesive, hinges, latches, struts, and bolts. This paper investigates the weight reduction benefits gained from utilizing structural foam to increase stiffness performance. Finite element analysis (FEA) is applied to baseline and redesigned versions of a liftgate, door, and decklid assembly to measure the stiffness performance with structural foam application. Performance is measured in terms of maximum displacement and Von Mises stresses incurred from several loading conditions. The conclusions will show that through slight redesign and structural foam application, lighter closure assemblies can often be achieved with equivalent stiffness performance. Furthermore, cost analyses will show that this can be done at little or no cost increase, depending on the type of closure assembly.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/2004-01-1514
Pages
15
Citation
McKune, P., "Lightweight Closure Assemblies Utilizing Structural Foam," SAE Technical Paper 2004-01-1514, 2004, https://doi.org/10.4271/2004-01-1514.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Mar 8, 2004
Product Code
2004-01-1514
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English