Fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs) are increasingly being used to reinforce the steel or aluminum automotive structure components. Currently, these multi-material applications are realized in general by a multi-stage manufacturing with considerable cost increase. To avoid this, a new hybrid forming method has been proposed and developed. It uses the half liquid FRP as a pressure media to hydro-form the sheet metals, form the reinforcement ribs of FRPs, and create the bonding between metal sheet and FRP in the same time and process step. In this work, the die sealing concepts for two test geometries could be successfully developed. The hybrid forming parameters (Temperature, pressure, speed etc.) are in a reasonable range and can be accepted by the industry. It could be approved that high strength steels with up to 800 MPa tensile strength could be hybrid formed successfully together with a LFT PA6 GF40 for a real car component. 20% weight reduction could be achieved.
Through the patented process of hybrid forming [1], it is possible to produce a bonded metal-plastic-hybrid component in one process step with the help of an edge-sealed pressing tool. Such a component exhibits an enormous energy absorption potential. To use this complete potential, a reliable FE-Modelling is necessary, that can exactly replicate the complex material layup consisting of an isotropic metal, a very thin bonding layer, and an anisotropic glass mat reinforced thermoplastic (GMT) for crash load case. A methodology is proposed to numerically predict the behavior of the metal GMT aluminum components. And finally, the experimental results of Hybrid components are validated for three-point bending and axial crash load cases.
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