Development Process of Side Impact Beam for Automotive Light-Weighting Door using Sheet Type

This paper presents the development process of automotive side door impact beam for passenger cars. Weight reduction while maintaining functional requirements is one of the major goals in the automotive industry. In this study, thin-walled side door beam using quenchable boron steel was designed to reduce the weight of conventional side door tubular one. In order to estimate design for the proposed side door beams, the static side impact protection tests(FMVSS 214) were conducted using the finite element method. Based on the simulation results, geometry modification of the side door beam has been performed via creating new reinforcing ribs. Furthermore, the manufactured frontal impact beam was mounted on the real side door of a passenger car, and then static impact protection test carried out. It is concluded that the presented test results can provide significant contribution to the stiffness of side door impact beams and light-weighting door research.