OrganoFalz

Description

Automotive manufacturers and their component suppliers increasingly focus on light weight design concepts to fulfill the requirements of energy-efficient individual mobility. The carbody shows a large potential for weight savings, whereas the reduction must not lead to a cutback in vehicle savety or travel comfort.

Folding is a major technology in the carbody production line, for joining visible exterior metal sheet to interior reinforcement sheets. In order to increase the stability in the joining zone as well as to eliminate the risk of corrosion, an adhesive is added to the joining zone and a sealing is applied afterwards. The dosage and positioning of the adhesive is a rather complex step in the production process.

The general idea of the project “OrganoFalz” is to replace the interior support sheet by a composite sheet which is fusion bonded directly to the exterior sheet. The adhesive will no longer be required and the resulting product will have an increased performance and reduced weight.

The aim of the project is the development of an innovative manufacturing technique for carbody components which allows the joining of exterior metal sheets and thermoplastic fibre reinforced support structures in an inexpensive and robust manner. The adhesive and carbody sealing of the conventional process will be replaced by thermal fusion bonding to join the metal sheet with the support structure. This requires detailed research on suitable materials, pretreatment processes, tooling configuration and process parameters.