Page 59 - SAEINDIA Magazine December 2020

LIGHTWEIGHT

Feature

“What this means for us is first, we can engage with
our customers and define the engineering for the Body WHEN LESS IS MORE!
in White (BIW), which will make the entire BIW a lot
lighter. Also, most importantly, we have been able to • Henkel and RLE International formed a strategic
demonstrate through our several FEAs (Finite Element alliance in 2018.
Analysis) is that when it comes to both the frontal crash • The alliance works with OEMs right from the
as well as the side crash, we have been able to enhance design stage and leverages Henkel’s material
the crash resistance. That’s a big deal with some of science and RLE’s designing expertise.
these OEMs the platforms that we are talking about is • Henkel-RLE awarded three programs in India,
all to do with electric vehicles, where there is a need for which at present are in the design phase; these
higher crash resistance. The battery is pretty much like vehicles are expected to be launched in 2023.
a flatbed of a bomb lying down and any crash is going
to have a significant impact, not only on the occupants • The company is deploying structural adhesive
of that vehicle but also the other surrounding vehicles that eliminates the weld process, which in turn
and/or people surrounding that. Therefore, there has to increases the weight of the vehicle.
be a very, very strong crash resistance built-in for these • The structural adhesive adds just 1gm compared
cars right from the chassis standpoint to the body, so to 50gm application of metal through the weld
that the body absorbs the impact and does not allow process.
it to be passed to the battery location. We have got EV
programmes running for two large Indian OEMs and also
some for large multinational brands,” details Bharadwaj. what should be the material of those elements and we
get engaged at that point of time. How it is different
Closely bonding with the OEM now? We are now doing a segment of engineering work

Henkel has for long been working with automotive (with Henkel-RLE alliance),” says Bharadwaj.
companies, but the stage at which the company was This means that Henkel has been able to work closely
engaged didn’t always begin at the design phase. Now with the OEM to understand its targets, be it reducing
with the strategic alliance with RLE in place, Henkel has NVH, improving strength, reducing weight or getting
been able to work closely with OEMs and not just share a five-star Global NCAP safety rating. Furthermore,
its products as a tourniquet. Bharadwaj mentions that depending on the customer

“This is a completely new dimension compared to how requirements, “We start doing the engineering together
was it functioning in the past. Earlier, the engagement with RLE which continues to keep reducing the element
happened when an OEM comes to the point of SoP, the of the steel. Then our (Henkel) material science engineers
first build or the prototype if they notice that either the sit and the data points of what our materials can
crash performance is not up to the standard or there is a provide to enhance the strength. Let’s assume that the
higher noise level as compared to what they had initially thickness is going to be reduced from 3mm to 1mm;
anticipated originally in the design. That’s when our then we offer our material which is much lighter — one-
engagement with the product engineering team kicks off tenth the weight of steel and that would provide much
and what we are offering essentially at that point in time more strength. That is going to be pretty much an FEA
is a band-aid work. Because the design is already done, analysis to be done on RLE and it is compared to the
all that we are trying to do is to salvage the design, or 3mm thickness vs the 1mm thickness with the Henkel
rather optimise the design so that we can get to a vehicle material. Then we take the overall weight, that is also
to the same level as it was originally conceptualised to be something we check and then we make the proposal to
set up. But it is still a band-aid. After the RLE alliance, we the respective OEM, stating that we have achieved this
are going way advanced from the time the designers are objective and by the way, we were not only were able to
designing the vehicle. Once the concept is done and they maintain it at 20kg but we have also been able to reduce
start the designing work that is the engineering aspect, it by an additional 2kg. We have a couple of cases. In
as in where do I have to add what type of elements and the last week of August, we had a web-seminar with all

MOBILITY ENGINEERING DECEMBER 2020 57