Development of Application Technique for a Car Body with Aluminium Sandwich Panels

An aluminium sandwich sheet is the material fabricated by adhering two aluminum panels to one plastic core. When it has the same bending stiffness as an steel panel it is 65% lighter than steel panel and 30% lighter than aluminum panel. Therefore it is notified exclusively as good substitutive materials for steel body to improve fuel efficiency. An aluminium sandwich sheet, however, has a problem of the lower formability than steel in automotive application. In this paper we intend to develop application technologies of an aluminum sandwich sheet for auto body panels from selecting composed materials of aluminium sandwich sheets to fabricating prototype. We selected aluminium sandwich panels fabricated by Hoogovens company. Through formability tests we have designed the hood part on auto body panels and fabricated a mould and a prototype.