Challenges in framing applications:
Framing is the process of joining the side panels and roof bow to the underbody. Crash safety, lightweight design and short production times are always the primary goals. Atlas Copco works together with our customers to ensure optimal solutions regardless of vehicle shape and design.
Structural bonding
The optimization of the car body for stiffness and crash resistance is called structural bonding. In body shop, high viscosity adhesives are used to achieve those safe and reliable joints. Read more to learn about structural bonding in body-in-white offered by the SCA product line.
Bead application
Most car manufacturers usually choose standard beads for traditional framing applications. This is a preferred solution to gain outstanding strength and stiffness with epoxy-based adhesives. With a productive dispensing application and ideal system configuration you can reach speeds of up to 500 mm/s. Bead applications are not only used for hybrid joining but also for anti-flutter applications. By connecting the inner and outer parts with elastic material, vulnerability to vibrations is successfully reduced.
Stitch bead application
Stitch bead applications are ideal for structural bonding. By interrupting the bead pattern between weld spots, costly adhesive material can be saved without weakening the joint. It reduces weld fumes and spatter – all without losing cycle time. The high application speeds required by the process make a very fast application unit an absolute necessity. Application units should also be designed to offer a long service life and to deal with the near constant high stress levels to which they are exposed.
Sealing
Areas that are difficult to seal after assembly but still need to get protected against corrosion are often sealed when the car is in the framing process.