The Influence of Aluminum Properties on the Design, Manufacturability and Economics of an Automotive Body Panel

The implementation of aluminum in today’s automotive body panels is an engineering problem seeking resolution of conflicting objectives including structural integrity, manufacturability and cost. This paper utilizes the results of a computer modeling technique to show the effects of differing aluminum alloy properties on body panel characteristics including: stiffness, dent resistance, oil canning, draw-die overcrown, minimum thickness, cost and weight. Minimum cost aluminum alloy selection is shown to be sensitive to panel curvature, inner panel support, yield strength and draw-die overcrown limits. Two case studies are presented comparing 1100, 3004, 5182-SSF, 2036-T4 and 6010-T6 aluminum alloys for varying design configurations of a typical automotive hood.