New developments in design and manufacturing automotive bulb shields

摘要

Automotive bulb shields are important components in automotive headlamps. Progressive draw is the primary process for making bulb shields. Since the complexity of deformation modes, progressive draw die design is the most formidable stamping process to be developed. Like those of other small automotive stamped parts, manufacturers involved in the design and production of bulbs are facing new challenges, such as aggressive styling to meet fast changing customer tastes, increasing performance requirement to meet government regulations and fierce competition from low cost offshore suppliers. In this study, several new developments are introduced to tackle these challenges. The dome test is designed and conducted to test sheet formability at a progressive speed. Tailor-welded design is proposed to improve vibration durability. A roughness modeling and FEM simulation-based cosmetic appearance prediction method has been created to predict the cosmetic effect in the early stage of development. A global manufacturing structure is established to increase economic efficiency.