Smart Hybrid Automotive Panel Engineering (SHAPE)

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This proposal intends to produce affordable lightweight smart cosmetic automotive panels by combining high strength alloys with shape memory or impact responsive polymers. The objective will be to engineer hybrid panels with high structural integrity and dent resistance that are at least 30% lighter than their monolithic steel counterparts whilst imparting shape memory and deformation rate dependant properties. The intention is to produce a panel with a formed metal 'A' class surface backed with a polymer inner layer. The polymer backing layer will enable the use of significantly thinner metal sheet thus providing significant weight saving. The hybrid panels will be produced using standard polymer injection moulding technology with the metal sheet being formed into the tool by the pressure of the injected polymer (cf. sheet hydroforming) with the polymer being moulded to the back of the metal substrate using micro scale mechanical interlocking. Take up of the technology would have a significant environmental impact by reducing tail pipe emissions and there is significant potential for improved pedestrian safety as a result of improved impact performance of components such as the car bonnet. If this technology was adopted on a single component (i.e. bonnet) with 250k units a year this would save in the order of 1.5 million kg of CO2 per annum. Additionally, the novel manufacturing techniques developed in this project will be a key enabler in the delivery of new product concepts.