The Development of Testing Device for Compression Deformation of Automotive Door Weather-strip Seals

Automotive door system weather-strip seals play a major role in determining door closing effort, isolating the passenger compartment from water and reducing the wind noise inside the vehicle. They are typically dual extrusion bulbs of sponge and dense rubber. The bulbs can be round, triangular or free form in shape with a height of approximately 15-30 mm. The special properties of dense and sponge rubber material are (1) High extensibility. (2) Low extensional and shear modulus. Dense rubbers are nearly incompressible. Sponge rubbers are, on the other hand, very compressible. (3) Nonlinear force vs. extension behavior. Because of the above-mentioned factors, the deformation of the automotive door weather-strip seal during the compression is very complicated.

A testing set has been developed for obtaining compression deformation of the door weather-strip by using stereovision theory. Precision instruments of optical grating and force sensor are also integrated in this set. Force-displacement response characteristics of compression at varied speed can be controlled. This work will lay solid foundations for characteristic and structure as well as optimization design of the automotive weather-strip.