Design and Development of the Oldsmobile Alero Instrument Panel and the Use of the Gas Assist Process

The 1999 Oldsmobile Alero incorporates an instrument panel utilizing several advanced manufacturing technologies. The instrument panel, molded from a glass-filled Styrene-Maleic Anhydride (SMA) resin, uses the gas-assist process to produce a gas channel of approximately nine feet in length (see figure 1). This process includes multiple gas injection locations, a heated manifold system with (9) sequentially gated injection locations and a delayed gas blowback technique.