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With a significant increase in awareness of safety and sustainability among the automobile original equipment manufacturers and end users, every car manufacturer is looking for lightweight, safe and cost-effective solutions for every unit present in their vehicle. The latter gets much more focus in developing countries, where the automobile market is extremely cost sensitive. Further, with implementation of the proposed global technical regulations on pedestrian safety in the near future and low-speed vehicle damageability requirements, demand for a low-cost, lighter and safer bumper system is ever increasing. This paper focuses on development of a unique thermoplastic energy-absorbing device for vehicle bumpers. Conventionally, major energy absorbing members of these bumper systems consist of three separate pieces: energy absorber, bumper beam and crash cans. A hybrid approach based on logical reasoning and topology optimization is used to conceive the design.

Automotive steering wheels, which play an important role as a human machine interface, are evolving over time with numerous integrations and innovations. Thermoplastic steering wheel, one of the innovations in recent times, offers significant reduction in mass along with part integration and styling flexibility and is an excellent replacement to traditional metal armature steering wheels. Typical steering wheels need to meet many performance requirements before they enter production. With the advancement of computational mechanics and increase in computational capabilities, it has become much easier to evaluate and optimize steering wheel performance in different ways. Instead of manufacturing and running prototype tests, steering wheel designs can be modeled and optimized virtually in various scenarios using standard finite element analysis technique, thus facilitating faster development cycle.

Automotive steering wheel (SW) is generally manufactured with metal armature and polyurethane / polypropylene (PU / PP) overmolding. The metal armature is used to provide structural stiffness and strength while PU / PP foam gives shape, touch and feel. Developed market use cast Magnesium or Aluminum as armature material, however emerging markets use steel for armature construction. With additional requirements (airbag integration, functional integration, aesthetics, compact and light weigh) being added to steering wheel, the steering wheel design is becoming more and more complex in nature. Thermoplastic SW offers competitive stiffness, impact, ductility and chemical resistance characteristics needed for the global automotive markets. A thermoplastic SW had been developed from a unique recyclable polycarbonate.

Improving passenger car damageability has been an important topic for The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Research Council for Automotive Repairs (RCAR) council. Incorporation of new IIHS/RCAR barrier (Rigid bumper shaped barrier fitted with an energy absorbing material and cover) in ‘Bumper Structural Test protocols’ closely replicates the damage patterns observed in real world low-speed crashes. Inclusion of new IIHS/RCAR barrier impact (10kmph speed) test, along with IIHS and RCAR bumper test protocols, redefines the development of countermeasures for low speed damageability. In this paper an innovative cost effective, and lightweight, hybrid bumper beam solution is proposed with thermoplastics and steel, to meet IIHS and RCAR impact requirements including new IIHS/RCAR barrier impact test protocols.