Adhesive Intense Body Structure

Abstract: Adhesive bonding is employed along with spot welding to a hybrid joining method and applied to the left hand side door opening section of the SAAB 95 sedan to increase strength and decrease weight and cost of the parts and assembly process. Advantages of hybrid bonding are explored regarding several aspects of automobile design and manufacturing. Materials sensitive to stress concentrations, such as boron steel, are suggested to be improved regarding joint integrity by the use of hybrid joining. The micro structure of a boron steel reinforcement is believed to be protected by using the adhesive bonding. The joint configurations in the B-pillar and the lower rocker have been changed to obtain more strength in the structure. One new integrated part located inside the lower rocker is introduced combining 5 parts of the present design, leading to considerable cost saving. The new B-pillar design with removed lateral flanges ruptured in the crash simulation suggesting the necessity of the flanges.