Design and Analysis of Thermoplastic Prepreg Based Heavy Commercial Vehicle Seat

Abstract

Combining two or more reinforcing elements into the matrix to compose a new material with enhanced properties is called hybrid composite. By favor of related method; prime advantages such as lightening the vehicles and reducing the process steps are obtained and it is aimed to bring the parts production costs to a competitive point depending on the appropriate part selection and design optimizations. In this regard, it is essential to integrate hybrid composite and advanced molding technologies and to produce certain structural components associated with using this technology. Within the scope of this study, the metal part (S420 MC) used in the truck seat structure was modelled along with the finite element method of the continuous glass fiber reinforced composite material that will be used to produce with composite technology. Part design studies and ECE R14 regulation analysis applied to composite production of the relevant seat part have been realized. In this work, heavy commercial vehicle passenger seat backrest was chosen as the study product. The backrest of the existing weight is 3200 gr and the related backrest was welded from S420 MC tube. Based on this, weight reduced to 1700 gr by performing over-molding method under favor of using polypropylene / GF 40 (P40B01) raw material on Epoxy Resin based (OM10) prepreg material and weight reduction have successfully substantiated. Mechanical properties of the materials used as the acceptance criteria of the models were determined as the relevant acceptance ranges. Within the scope of the analysis studies, design that encounters the mechanical limits of the material for all the scenarios was determined as the accepted design. There is a static loading condition for ECE-R14 analysis. In the designs, ribs were added to the areas above the mechanical limits of the material, revisions were made in the thickness of the material.

Keywords

• Thermoplastic Composite
• Over-Molding
• Composite Design
• Finite element analysis

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