Comparing material impact strength of three high impact plastic resins used in automotive grille using nonlinear finite element analysis tools

As a part of Team Value Management program, existing products are benchmarked against the best in class products and their product design and manufacturing reviewed to identify ways to lower costs, such as using less expensive materials or streamlining manufacturing processes.; In this study an effort has been made to compare impact properties of three different plastic resins used in car grilles. The plastic resins being compared are a proprietary grade PC+ABS, an alternate commercial grade PC+ABS and a commercial grade ABS. The results from this study will be used to evaluate the feasibility of replacing PC+ABS with ABS as the grille material to achieve cost savings. To achieve these objective grilles were injection molded and processed using the three resins and a low speed front barrier physical impact test was carried out to study the effect of impact on the bumper-grille subsystem. On a parallel path a nonlinear dynamic FEA study was carried out to simulate the tests. Analytical and physical data are reviewed and impact properties are compared.; The study shows that all the three resins satisfied the front barrier impact performance requirements. However, the proprietary grade PC+ABS currently being used exhibits superior impact properties compared to ABS and the alternate commercial grade PC+ABS. Therefore from a front barrier impact performance point of view PC+ABS can be replaced by ABS in the grille system.