A Review on the Composite Materials used for Automotive Bumper in Passenger Vehicles John Alen1, Alex Sanu2 1PG Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 2UG Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India Online published on 21 November, 2017. Abstract The emission of gases and fuel efficiency of vehicles are two important issues in these days. The best way to increase the fuel efficiency is to reduce the weight of vehicle parts. Bumper is the one of the part having slightly more weight. Without sacrificing safety we have to employ composite materials in the bumper. Polymer composite materials have been a part of the automotive industry for several decades but the economic and technical barriers have constraint their use. Because of their favorable properties (e.g. high specific tensile and compressive strength, controllable electrical conductivity, low coefficient of thermal expansion, good fatigue resistance and suitability for the production of complex shape materials), reinforced composites are very widely used. In the present scenario, they have become the alternatives of conventional structural materials such as steel, wood or metals in many applications. Although glass-fiber-reinforced polymers dominate over the other composite materials used in automotive application, other polymer composites such as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers, glass fiber reinforced polypropylene, glass fiber vinyl ester SMC show great promise to the industry. The major thrust of this paper is the viability of polymer composites used in automotive bumpers. Based on literature studies on composite material properties the alternatives provide much more promises in the automotive industries than conventional materials used in automotive bumpers. The other typical areas of application includes aircraft industry, chemical industry, wind power plants, sporting goods, boats, ships etc. Top Keywords Bumper materials, polypropylene, polyester epoxy, SMC. Top |