Structural Thermoplastic Composite Air Conditioning Door for Mass Transit Bus

摘要

This paper deals with the design and analysis of an air conditioning (AC) cover roof door of an articulated mass transit bus using advanced thermoplastic composites. Innovative thermoplastic composites materials and thermoforming processing technologies have been demonstrated to form an AC door that has an outer skin on thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) and an inner rib-stiffened liner made of Azdel SuperLite (glass mat in an aerated polypropylene thermoplastics matrix). The thermoplastic AC door is approximately 40% lighter than the metal counterpart and can be readily molded in a mass-produce able cost-effective manner.