Plume - Reducing the weight of interior and exterior woodworking on motor vehicles
Overview
Background & policy context:
In the context of current global warming, reducing CO2 emissions is a particularly difficult challenge, launched by the governments of the world powers in the automotive industry, within a relatively short time. The vehicles’ lightening through the development of new materials is one of the solutions to this major challenge.
Objectives:
It is in this context that the PLUME project fits (for reducing the weight of interior and exterior woodworking on motor vehicles), aiming at reducing by 30 to 50% of auto parts like interior materials (e.g. the component pad located in the trunk) or external linings (e.g. the beltline dressing the doors). To do this, the thermoplastic compounds having a reduced density were developed to adapt to an innovative injection foaming method. On the whole vehicle, the expected gain in terms of weight was in the order of 5 to 7 kg per vehicle.
The PLUME project therefore proposed to address this problem by proposing to lighten 30-50% of the mass of auto parts like interior and exterior trims. 3 work areas were studied:
- The development of thermoplastic compounds loaded with inorganic fibres and having high fluidity.
- The development of an innovative process injection-foaming
- Using an innovative method based on the conceptual design optimization.
Share this page