2 Total Life Cycle-Based Materials Selection for Polymer 3 Metal Hybrid Body-in-White Automotive Components4

7 Over the last dozen of years, polymer metal hybrid (PMH) technologies have established themselves as 8 viable alternatives for use in light-weight automotive body-in-white bolt-on as well as load-bearing 9 (structural) components. Within the PMH technologies, sheet-metal stamped/formed and thermoplastic 10 injection molding subcomponents are integrated into a singular component/module. Due to attending 11 synergetic effects, the performance of the PMH component typically exceeds that attainable by an alter-12 native single-material technologies. In the present work, a total life cycle (TLC) approach to the selection of 13 metallic and thermoplastic materials (as well as the selection of structural adhesives, where appropriate) is 14 considered. The TLC material selection approach considers the consequences and ramifications of material 15 selection at each major stage of the vehicle manufacturing process chain (press shop, injection molding 16 shop, body shop, paint shop, and assembly), as well as relation to the vehicle performance, durability and 17 the end-of-the-life-of-the-vehicle considerations. The approach is next applied to the case of injection 18 overmolding technology to identify the optimal grade of short glass-fiber reinforced nylon when used in a 19 prototypical PMH load-bearing automotive body-in-white component. 20 21 Keywords automotive structural components, materials selection, 22 polymer metal hybrids, total life cycle 23