Future of Sheet Molding Compound (Smc) Body Panels

A large variety of technological advances in materials, processing, equipment and design developed recently help further enhance the use of SMC automotive body panels. These developments include: 1. low profile, fast-cure and easy-flow SMC pastes; 2. fast-cure adhesives and bonding techniques; 3. in- mold coating, vacuum molding and paste degassing; 4. fast moving and "forced-parallelism" short stroke molding presses with precise controls on pressure, time and speed; 5. design optimization for molded parts, tooling and processing; 6. simultaneous engineering; and 7. continuous flow and information intensive manufacturing. These technologies help improve surface quality, lower manufacturing cost and reduce development time of SMC parts.