An innovative, lightweight bumper system has been designed and developed in conjunction with an OEM, Alcoa, and Miles Inc. The bumper system uses extruded aluminum (6061-T6) for the reinforcement beam and mounting brackets, and resilient polyurethane foam (Bayfill EA-70) for the energy absorbing material.
There are two key advantages of this lightweight system. The first is that the extruded aluminum beam can be highly swept to meet the demanding styling requirements, and the second is that the polyurethane foam is directly molded to the aluminum beam for part consolidation and assembly cost reduction. By integrating extruded aluminum and polyurethane foam, this system provides tighter dimensional tolerances not common in most bumper systems today. In addition, the extruded system provides low mass due to variable wall thicknesses and a major reduction in tooling costs over other manufacturing methods.
