Exploring the role of structural adhesives for future automobiles

The Faszination Kleben trade fair held Dec. 4-5, 2018 in Neuss, Germany shared insights into the future of the automobile with a focus on digitization and electrification. The annual event, now in its tenth year, saw OEMs, suppliers and experts meet to discuss topics such as electromobility, connectivity and autonomous driving, which are poised to drastically change the automotive industry.

“There will be functions in the car that we can not even imagine today,” says design expert Professor Lutz Fügener from the University of Pforzheim (Pforzheim, Germany).

Prof. Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM, Center of Automotive Management), predicted that so far largely separate business areas such as automotive, telecommunications and digital business will be interlinked in the car of the future.

Six lectures at the event discussed the black box as a future automotive concept. In addition to Professor Fügener and Prof. Bratzel, participants included Annemie Kleemann, technology developer Hörmann Automotive (Hesse, Germany); Florian Daniel, Principal Automotive for Roland Berger (Munich, Germany); Christoph Rochaz, technical manager of the 3M (Maplewood, MN, US) Automotive and Aerospace Solutions Division and Prof. Thomas Druyen, Director Institute for Future Psychology and Future Management at Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna (Wien, Austria). In workshop sessions, the participants discussed such topics as how inspirations from the aviation industry will influence future vehicle floor designs and how vehicle exteriors will change in the era of electromobility.

Annemie Kleemann of Hörmann Automotive used the example of the development of a chassis for electrified light commercial vehicles to highlight the role of gluing in dealing with the changing market requirements in relation to new manufacturing processes, lightweight constructions and design. Crash protection for batteries, the maximization of the load volume and the reduction of the vehicle weight make new developments necessary in this area. Kleemann presented an oval chassis shape that diverts the power in a side crash, thus protecting the internal battery. The basic structure of the chassis is formed by differential-made multi-chamber profiles made of bent gap profiles. The side members are joined using a hybrid process (gluing with a structural adhesive tape and laser welding or blind riveting).

Christoph Rochaz of 3M showed how the multi-technology company is transforming the requirements of its automotive customers into new processes, technologies and solutions for series production. He illustrated this with the example of the self-adhesive door seal. In addition to positive aspects such as design freedom and lower transport volume, the solution reduces the noise level. At a frequency of 4,000 hertz, which can occur when driving fast on a motorway, outside noise is reduced by six decibels. Also in another test, in which the viscoelastic property of the adhesive tape has damped the fatigue, the adhesive prevailed against compounds of metal screws and plastic clips.

This post is courtesy of the CompositesWorld and Springer lightweight.design magazine media partnership. For more information about Springer and lightweight.design, go to https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/link/12141380