Papers by Author: Boris Rauscher

Abstract: The development of manufacturing methods for producing plastic-metal hybrid structures has already opened new possibilities for lightweight design. Contrarily to the existing technologies i.e. Insert, Outsert and Hybrid Technology, the new forming process “Polymer Injection Forming” (PIF) offers the advantages associated with injection moulding technology and hydroforming technology in a way that hybrid structures can be produced in a single step. The polymer which is used as pressure medium in a melted state to form geometrical features in the sheet metal remains as a functional part in the final hybrid structure. This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of Polymer Injection Forming. Particularly, the interaction between process parameters of injection moulding including injection pressure, cavity pressure, volume flow rate, melt temperature and the resulting part properties e.g. shape and strain distribution of the sheet metal structure from the preliminary results are discussed. The experiments comprise the bulging of a (free form) dome geometry and simple cup geometry of Aluminium and steel sheets by using thermoplastic Polypropylene (PP) as working medium.

Abstract: This paper presents a sectionwise hydroforming technique for manufacturing of large-area multi-cell sheet metal structures in terms of hump plates. The sectionwise hydroforming technique allows production of hump sheets with variable width and length. The hump plates are based on hexagonal hump geometry. The hump height is optimized for the application as a partition wall in light utility vehicles. Manufactured hump sheets feature a high contour accuracy which allows joining of two hump sheets to a large-area hump plate (up to 1,800 x 2,000 mm). The hump plates have been successfully tested in a load test which proves their potential for light utility vehicles.