ENGINEERING MATERIAL (BHM1113)

SUITABLE MATERIAL FOR CAR BUMPER

GROUP A
WAN NURUL FARAH LIYANA RAZALI (HA10013) AYUNI MOHAMMAD BORHAN (HA10020) SYUHADA SYAMIRA HASSAN (HA10017) CHEW YEN YING (HA10022)

LECTURERS NAME
PROF. IR. DR. MD YUSOF ISMAIL

Design of Car Bumper

Front and Rear Car Bumper

Overview about Car Bumper

What are car bumper?

A bumper is a shield made of steel, aluminum, rubber, or plastic that is mounted on the front and rear of a passenger car. When a low speed collision occurs, the bumper system absorbs the shock to prevent or reduce damage to the car. Some bumpers use energy absorbers or brackets and others are made with a foam cushioning material.

What is the purpose of bumpers?

The car bumper is designed to prevent or reduce physical damage to the front and rear ends of passenger motor vehicles in low-speed collisions. Bumpers are designed to protect the hood, trunk, grille, fuel, exhaust and cooling system as well as safety related equipment such as parking lights, headlamps and taillights in low speed collisions.

What is the prominent characteristic in a car bumper?

Mainly, toughness and ductility are taking into account when designing car bumper. Toughness and ductility of material used must also capable to absorb small or high impact and ensure safeness of car users. Toughness is the resistance to fracture of a material when stressed. Ductility is the extent in which solid materials can be plastically deformed without fracture.

Propose Material for making car bumper

Generally, car bumpers are made of a plastic cover reinforced by a bar made of steel, fiberglass composite, plastic or aluminum. Therefore, our group is thinking of using other form of plastics. The plastic material that we used is polypropylene plastic or known as pp plastic. Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer, made by the chemical industry and used in a wide variety of applications such as in automotive component.

Structure of polypropylene

Advantages of using PP plastics

PP plastics use as plastic honeycomb to cushion the car during an accident. During low-speed impact, they hit each other squarely and evenly. Therefore, impact is distributed equally so that the time lengthens before it reach crumple zone. Polypropylene is light and easily moulded. The somewhat brittle nature of polypropylene plastic is actually an advantage. In the event of a low velocity crash, the breaking of the plastic will actually absorb some of the energy, which will help to avoid damaging the fender, hood and exhaust. Polypropylene is strength, stiff and can withstand high temperature. Polypropylene is also one of the lightest plastic available with a density of 0.905 g/cm. Polypropylene plastics are one of the cheapest plastics available at market s value.