Integration and Lightweight Design in Automotive Doors

Future doors require light weight, cost efficient and acoustic optimized solutions. Current steel doors offer only a small range of possibilities in these areas. With the use of aluminum doors the weight will be reduced but production complexity and costs will be increased. A modular door approach supports all of these future demands. Door modules have set milestones for door concepts in the past. Due to technological progress, door modules are more relevant in the current scenario. The use of reinforced plastics allows a high degree of design freedom with high integration of features.[2] In addition to weight reduction of up to 1.5kg per door the complete production process comes leaner with a higher grade of quality. The acoustic performance of a door system can be adjusted for noise reduction and improvement of the sound quality of speakers as illustrated. Functional integration is the key driver of weight and cost reduction