Improvement of rear inner body side panel material using honeycomb polypropylene sandwich panels in light commercial vehicles

Nowadays, automotive industry is growing rapidly and more and more comfort areas are being incorporated in vehicles every day. On the other hand, customers have stringent demand of fuel economy and high performance at low cost. In order to meet customer demands, automotive manufacturers focus on weight reduction studies. Rear interior body side panels of vehicles are one of the most important areas where automotive manufacturers mostly care for weight reduction studies. Honeycomb sandwich panels are one of the most appropriate material groups for automotive industry with their properties of low weight, high strength, good chemical resistance and high vibration damping. In the experimental study, it is aimed to select optimum panel material which can be used of plywood panels which are used in the rear interior body side panels of light commercial vehicles due to problems such as weight, cost per vehicle, moisture resistance, sound and vibration damping. For this purpose, due to their superior properties honeycomb sandwich panels with different properties which can be used on body side panels of light commercial vehicles have been examined in terms of mechanical, physical and thermal properties. Although they consist of different surface materials; mechanical, thermal and physical properties of honeycomb sandwich panels, each with polypropylene core material, have been examined and found out whether they meet engineering and material criteria. As a result of experimental studies, honeycomb polypropylene sandwich panels which can provide desired properties were selected as the optimum panel material and their properties were examined. The usage of honeycomb polypropylene sandwich panels in light commercial vehicles has resulted in a weight reduction of approximately 20 kg in vehicle weight. This reduction in vehicle weight reduced direct emissions by improving fuel consumption by 0.2 liter's. Since they have superior sound, impact and vibration properties, customer expectations and demands are met. In addition, it has been observed an increase in expected and desired performance from light commercial vehicles. Thus, this application, which will be realized for the first time in our country, will enable automotive producers who want to achieve high performance at low cost to use honeycomb polypropylene sandwich panels at different areas of light commercial vehicles.