Abstract
In today’s competitive business environment the automotive industries aim to increase the usage of the plastic materials in automobile components in order to reduce weight of the vehicles. Although the plastic materials provide a considerable savings on vehicle weight, these materials have some problems to be solved. One of the difficult problems encountered in the production of plastics is the flow lines on plastics because of its unpredictable behavior. As a result, considered problem faced by automobile companies often spend plenty of time and money is an issue to resolve. In this study the source of plastic flow lines on automotive external aesthetical parts are investigated by using material flow analysis programs. According to conventional methodologies; weld lines, temperature differences, filling times, clamping forces, shrinkages parameters are examined deeply before tooling face especially to eliminate aesthetical problems. But in this case we observed an unordinary situation such as flow lines on front bumper visible surfaces after tooling phase and therefore we searched a new approach to simulate this flow lines on the material flow analysis program. Flow directions and flow velocity are comprehensively examined step by step during filling analysis. As a result of the analysis the geometric factors that affect the balance of flow and brings turbulence are detected. After the root cause analysis for plastic deformation the potential techniques are researched to find best solution. Analysis are repeated in the same conditions that are considered to be made for all geometric changes. The experiment results are comparatively analyzed and the solution approach that have the best flow balance is selected.
Highlights
Vehicle manufacturers have been started to compete in order to produce lighter vehicles in a competitive sector that automotive industry [1, 2]
A general rule of thumb is that for every 10% reduction in vehicle weight, the fuel consumption of vehicles is reduced by 5-7% [3]
In this context, producing many parts with plastic material instead of metal material are desired for lightweight vehicles [4]
Summary
Vehicle manufacturers have been started to compete in order to produce lighter vehicles in a competitive sector that automotive industry [1, 2]. A general rule of thumb is that for every 10% reduction in vehicle weight, the fuel consumption of vehicles is reduced by 5-7% [3] In this context, producing many parts with plastic material instead of metal material are desired for lightweight vehicles [4]. Flow lines can be caused by mostly injection parameters such as uneven cooling, uneven injection pressure, inadequate fill time, less melt temperature improper venting, wrong runner selection. It depends on the geometrical shape of the parts as well.
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