Accelerated Development of the 2000 Saturn Three-Door Coupe Rear Quarter Panel 2001-01-0848
In 1990, Saturn Corporation began production of a vehicle line, including sedan and coupe body styles, utilizing polymer body panels. This polymer body panel system offers benefits to the end-use customer, including:
Dent/ding resistance
Corrosion resistance
Weight savings enabling increased fuel economy and vehicle performance
Saturn Corporation also benefits from this polymer body panel system through significantly reduced up-front investment cost and shortened tooling lead times1.
The design, development, and manufacturing of polymer body panels for the new Three-Door Coupe will be discussed in this paper. Saturn drew upon experience gained over the past 8 years to take full advantage of the shorter lead times inherent in utilizing injection mold tooling. The shorter tooling lead-time enabled a successful fast vehicle development and launch.
The Three-Door Coupe is an industry first for Saturn. Being fast to market with a new vehicle is considered to be a significant competitive advantage that can help to enable market share growth. This paper will explain in more detail the specific program elements in the development of the Three-Door Coupe rear quarter panel.
Citation: Dean, D. and Griffin, S., "Accelerated Development of the 2000 Saturn Three-Door Coupe Rear Quarter Panel," SAE Technical Paper 2001-01-0848, 2001, https://doi.org/10.4271/2001-01-0848. Download Citation
Author(s):
David A. Dean, Steven Griffin
Pages: 6
Event:
SAE 2001 World Congress
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Body panels
Technical review
Fuel economy
Production
Polymers
Molding
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