Abstract
Recently weight reduction is increasingly needed in automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency and to meet a CO2 emission requirement. In this paper, we developed a new SMC (Sheet Molding Compound) tailgate assembly for compact minivan. It consists of composites outer panel, composites inner panel and steel subparts. Outer panel is made from Class-A SMC that has low shrinkage and high surface quality, and inner panel is made from low density SMC that has low density filler. By the way, manufacturing and design method of plastic tailgate is quite different from that of steel tailgate. Therefore we utilized FEM (Finite Element Method) to design plastic tailgate. After this design and manufacturing application, we are succeeded in obtaining 30% weight reduction and compatible panel stiffness.