Development of vehicle chassis manufactured by 3D pultrusion

Abstract

The present work presents a preliminary study on the development of a tubular chassis design for automotive industry manufactured with ultraviolet (UV) 3D pultrusion. The use of straight profiles for energy absorption elements and the advantages and feasibility of using curved profiles in other structural areas have been analysed. For the straight profiles, the energy absorption cabability of the material (specific energy absorption, SEA) has been evaluated performing quasi-static compression tests, showing high energy dissipation values, over 50 kJ / kg. On the other hand, the manufacturing of curved profiles by UV pultrusion have been analysed, evaluating the influence of the processing parameters (emitting intensity and pulling speed) and the influence of the reinforcement type on the geometry of the profile. It has been observed that the roving reinforcement allows an easier manipulation and allows to obtain curves without wrinkles with complex sections, due to the free movement between yarns; while the tape reinforcement may present wrinkles during the curving stage. In addition, based on a design with straight profiles, it has been shown that using non-rectilinear profiles, a significant reduction of the necessary connection nodes can be achieved, reducing up to 75% the number of connection nodes based on the analyed design.

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