Replacement Automotive Bumper: Best Material Selection (Research Paper Sample)

Student Name:
Instructor’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Date:
Replacement Automotive Bumper
The fuel efficiency and regulation of gas emission of automobiles are the most important things to consider. Fuel efficiency in any automobile is affected mainly by the work it does. The heavier the automobile the higher the fuel effective consumptions and low fuel efficiency. Therefore, for effective fuel optimization some components should be made lighter but retain their properties in terms of strength and resistance. Bumper is one of the heavy components in automotive and is used to allow the car to sustain impact upon collision without damage to the safety systems.
Automotive bumpers are designed to prevent or minimize the front and rear part of the passenger’s vehicles in case of a collision. The material selection for a bumper is very crucial for two main reasons: first is to design for better performance, less costly, reliable and minimized weight, and secondly, design for new products that cannot use the existing materials. Apart from the material selection, other important parameters include size of the bumper, shape, design for impact condition and crashworthiness design in low-speed impact. CITATION Pra14 \l 1033 (Praveen, Belagali and Bhaskar)
The materials used in this design report is steel and aluminium. Two main parameters that are used to find out the effect of bumper beam materials are modulus of elasticity and yield strength. These properties are available in the standard tables. Yield strength of steel and aluminium are 250 MPa and 243 MPa respectively. The modulus of elasticity of steel and aluminium are 200 GPa and 69.5 GPa respectively. Barrier beam bumpers for aluminiun and steel separates by 0.127 and 0.108 seconds respectively. CITATION Dav01 \l 1033 (David and Jet)
Methods used to fabricate bumpers are additive manufacture and conventional manufacture.
Additive manufacture
Additive manufacture is also known as 3D printing. In this method, polymer based parts are made on simple device using internal movement and controls that are just like that of a desk top printer. Instead of ink, a plastic or metallic material is used to create a three dimensional part gradually. The method can be applied to several materials in which the aluminium and steels are inclusive. CITATION PLP15 \l 1033 (P. and R.)
The great variety of materials allows the chance to select the most appropriate material for a specific components. Once the additive method has been done, the final design of automotive bumper, be it from aluminum or steel materials, is taken for electro-polishing to achieve the correct surface finish. Electro-polishing process does not discriminate the type of the material used. CITATION LaM16 \l 1033 (LaMonica)
This is the most advance technique used mostly in the automotive industry to manufacture car rims, bumpers and other sophisticated components. The development of use of different materials in processing like laser melting and sintering leaves the way for future utilization of this method. The ability to combine nanotechnology with 3D printing allows manufacturers to make complex parts of automobiles.
Economically, additive manufacturing enhances creation of bumpers from variety of materials and customization is possible thereby creating cost advantage. In addition, it has the ability to alter the design and manufacture of the bumpers, tools used and parts yielding to value gain. The manufacturing time is less too and failures are minimized through rapid prototyping.
Conventional manufacture.
This method of manufacture is also known as die casting, developed and used to evaluate potential finite element applications. It is based on the CNC machine technology or can be operated indecently by human operator. CITATION PLP15 \l 1033 (P. and R.)
This is the second method used to make automotive bumper, mostly from polymers composites and aluminum materials. The process of manufacturing using this method involve the following steps: CAD modeling, selection of the surface, generation of the CNC code, select the parameters, simulate and select the tool p...