PRODUCT ENG. & MATERIAL Volvo Car Corporation SE 405 31, Gothenburg, Sweden

INDUSTRIAL AND MATERIALS SCIENCE Chalmers University of Technology SE 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

Phone: +46 (0)30-320 55 76 E-mail: roland.kadar@chalmers.se

Master thesis:

Modelling rheological automotive adhesive performance in body shop production

Motivation In order to combine high performance and lightweight technol-ogy, modern automotive car bodies include a wide range of ma-terials, e.g. mild steel, boron steel, aluminium etc. Thus, joining methods are critical for car performance, especially safety. Cur-rently, the combination of structural adhesives and spot welding is the prevalent joining method in the automotive industry. The use of structural adhesives in the spot welding process is a crit-ical enabler for lightweight structural car body design. Project goal The project aims to achieve full confidence in rheological adhe-sive performance in the body shop production by modelling ad-hesive rheological behavior based on rheological input data available from rheometers. Methodology The project will cover the following aspects: 1. Analysis and modelling of basic rheological data from adhesive supplier and/or VCC laboratory 2. Data comparison with existing production adhesive data to model adhesive application performance in the body shop. This will further entail a. pilot plant equipment trials (adhesive pumpability, nozzle diameter/length, hose diameter/length) at VCC or equipment supplier or sometimes at adhesive suppliers’ tech center. b. production line trials c. rheological performance approval for production. The project is an industrial master thesis and the work will be performed at VCC. Supervision and contact Marcus Schmidt, PhD Volvo Car Corporation marcus.schmidt@volvocars.com Thomas Karlsson, Volvo Car Corporation Roland Kádár, Associate Professor Chalmers roland.kadar@chalmers.se