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Manufacturing Demonstration of Automotive Seat Backrest Using Sheet Molding Compound and Overmolding with Continuous Reinforcement

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Abstract

Sheet molding compounds (SMCs) are increasingly used in high-volume automotive applications for lightweighting and as a cost-neutral or low-cost solution to incumbent metal parts. Only a limited number of studies exist on SMC-based structural automotive parts. In this work, the SMCs formulated with vinyl ester resin were considered as they represent cost-efficient and durable automotive composite materials. The concept of manufacturing process with overmolding of continuous fiber at select areas enhancing local strength and stiffness with the bulk SMC domain is also introduced. The studies were extended from the coupon level to the production of an automotive SMC composite seat backrest. Both test coupons and seat backrest parts were compression molded using structural SMCs. These were also evaluated with continuous glass fiber-overmolded SMCs for enhanced performance and damage tolerance. Flexural, interlaminar shear, and Izod impact tests were conducted for SMC and SMC-overmolded (OM) specimens to evaluate their structural integrity. Scanning electron microscopy was conducted to analyze failure modes, fiber wet-out, and interfacial bonds. Mechanical evaluation of SMC-OM across and along the flow direction of the seat was conducted. The flexure, impact, and interlaminar shear strength of SMC-OM was 6% to 27% higher than SMCs. High-resolution X-ray computed tomography was used to study the microstructure and the effect of SMCs on local fiber orientations of continuous glass fiber format after compression molding and the interface of two formats of fiber reinforcement. Vibration-based nondestructive evaluation showed distinct frequency shifts to higher values, indicating higher local stiffness of the overmolded SMC component.

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Data Availability

The data sets generated during this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI)–The Composites Institute. The information, data, and work presented herein were funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, under Award Number . Characterization support provided by Vidyarani Sangnal Matt Durandhara Murthy, Mohammed Zahid Abbas Khuraishi, Jimmy Bray, Jeff Zajowski, Joshua D. Crabtree, Zach Arwood, Jun-Cheng Chin, Adam Buchalter, Garrett Byrd, Darren Foster, James N. Eun, Andrew Patchen, Sean Lee, Niko Maldonado, and Ryan Preiss from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tickle College of Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Uday Vaidya, Nitilaksha Hiremath, Ryan Spencer, Stephen Young & Dayakar Penumadu

  2. Manufacturing Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    Uday Vaidya & Ahmed Hassen

  3. Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), Knoxville, TN, 37932, USA

    Uday Vaidya & Dayakar Penumadu

  4. Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga, TN, 37416, USA

    Hendrik Mainka & Marton Kardos

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  1. Uday Vaidya
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Correspondence to Stephen Young.

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Vaidya, U., Hiremath, N., Spencer, R. et al. Manufacturing Demonstration of Automotive Seat Backrest Using Sheet Molding Compound and Overmolding with Continuous Reinforcement. Appl Compos Mater 29, 1367–1391 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-022-10019-2

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