Feasibility Study of Compression Molding for Large Reinforcement Structures in the Commercial Vehicle Sector

<jats:p>Abstract. Due to an increasing volume of shipments, there is a significant need for more delivery vehicles. One approach to reduce the associated increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is a new light weight design approach involving the substitution of conventional materials with glass fiber mat-reinforced thermoplastics (GMT) based on polypropylene (PP). The application of GMT by compression molding is a widely used process in the automotive industry. However, application in the commercial vehicle sector requires much larger dimensions, making it necessary to clarify whether the manufacturing process and material are suitable for semi-structural applications on this scale. To find this out, two replacement geometries are abstracted in this study and manufactured by varying the main manufacturing parameters. The feasibility can be demonstrated by recording and analyzing the resulting process variables and measuring the formed fiber distribution. At the end of the paper, recommendations are given for the production of GMT structures on the scale of commercial vehicles. </jats:p>