Mitras announce launch of X83 Technical Front End for the Trafic and Vivaro vehicles

Mitras’ latest project, to be launched in August 2001, will be a Glass Mat Thermoplastic (GMT) internal front fascia component produced for Renault and GM.
The component is to be fitted onto Renault’s new “Trafic” van. GM will sell the van through its European Vauxhall and Opel networks as the “Vivaro”, available as a van and a people carrier.

The part is an unseen structural application that stretches over the width of the vehicle. It appears just behind the front face and incorporates the grill and headlamp apertures. It is made from Glass Mat Thermoplastic (GMT) which is renowned for its strength to weight ratio and excellent crash behaviour that is essential for this type of structural component; this particular grade of GMT has a 30% glass content. The choice of GMT was further reinforced by its sound dampening properties and short manufacturing cycle time. Using this material gave greater design freedom and this one part would have needed around 6 or 7 steel parts.

£1million was spent in total on tooling and development. The whole production process is automated, investment in robots and a state of the art GMT oven combined with Mitras developing its own robot head and lifting equipment has allowed the whole project to run smoothly. The automated process has two main advantages: cost and precision. Robots eliminate human error and maintain repeatable accuracy at a lower cost than the three people required to undertake this process.

The GMT “blanks” are placed into an infrared convection oven and heated to a temperature of 210°C although the oven is capable of reaching 300°C. The robot then picks them up using a head incorporating pinsdeveloped by Mitras and places them into a 50°C mould tool within a 1250 tonne press. After a cycle time of just over a minute the robot will remove the moulded component from the press and into a cooler. The part is then placed into the punch tool where all apertures are removed. The last phase is the assembly machine that inserts clips and location bushes.

Mitras worked very closely with Renault in every stage of the process, both parties had input into design, engineering and the final production process.