TCA and Contributions Made to Improve SMC

PaintabilityMike Siwajek

ThyssenKrupp Budd Company

Society of Plastics EngineersAutomotive Composites Conference

September 9-10, 2003Troy, MI

Goals and Objectives

Defect Root Cause Analysis

• 500+ defects from 10 assembly plants catalogued

• Large percentage of defects due to microcracks from handling

• Majority of “handling” defects occurred after primer application

Root Cause Breakdown

Cracks & damage

Toughening the Matrix

• Targeting edge defects• Evaluate all components

– resins– fillers– LPA’s– additives– catalysts / inhibitors– glass

Improved Toughness

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006 0.007

Strain, in/in

Str

ess

, p

si

TCA

Control

Paint Pop Flex Test• 2 x 18 x 0.1 test strips• 8.25 diameter cylindrical

mandrel• designed for 125% of ultimate

stress• deformation creates micro-

cracks on SMC surface • Paint with conventional Primer-

sealers using E-coat bake simulation (380F for 30 min.)

• count “paint pops” on surface of SMC

PP Flex Test Panels

Control Tough Class ‘A’

Verifying TCA’s Effectiveness• Multiple DOEs performed

– Ford Paint on Plastics Team / 6-sigma black belts– AOC– Red Spot

• Studied effects of– SMC type– Humidity– E-coat– Stress after molding (molding plant damage) – Stress after priming (body shop handling damage)– Type of primer (standard 2K and UV Thermal)

TCA DOE Results

• TCA less affected than control– humidity– temperature– handling

extremes

• 90+% improvement in pop resistance over control 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Pops

per

pane

l

971 TCA

Desi

red

Sample Paint Pop Test Results

TCA Implementation

• TCA has afforded:– Conversion from double layer of

primer to single layer of primer without degradation in quality

– Up to 98% reduction in paint defects

– Currently less than 10 defects submitted for microscope analysis (since May 2002) - Zero Microcracks

Ford Sport Trac• Process DOE completed

in May 2002 (defect rate reduced to ~60)

• Full conversion to TCA in June 2002

• Defect rate has dropped from ~60 to below 10

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

MONTHLY 20.4 10.4 6.3 7.2 8.2 8.5 6.1 11.1 0.9 1.5 6.0 2.7

May-02 Jun-02 Jul-02 Aug-02 Sep-02 Oct-02 Nov-02 Dec-02 Jan-03 Feb-03 Mar-03 Apr-03

Ford T-Bird• Defect rate includes all parts

– fender converted July 2002

– decklid 07/29/02– hood 09/2002

• Level defect rate for TCA 1X primed vs standard SMC 2X

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

MONTHLY 140.6 98.7 104.5 97.6 58.1 41.8 36.7 27.8 29.9 10.9 9.5 3.0

May-02 Jun-02 Jul-02 Aug-02 Sep-02 Oct-02 Nov-02 Dec-02 Jan-03 Feb-03 Mar-03 Apr-03

Ford Ranger Hood

• Full conversion to TCA 08/13/02

• Defect rate dropped from ~200 to nearly 0

• Pop rate data collection suspended by assembly plant

209

222

89

11

1.1

0

50

100

150

200

250

Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct 11/1 11/4 11/5 11/6 11/7 11/8 11/11 11/12 11/13 11/14 11/15 11/18 11/19 11/20

Conversion to TCA

Lincoln Navigator Hood• Converted hood to

TCA on 06/17/02• Level defect rate

for TCA 1X primed vs. standard SMC 2X

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

MONTHLY 122 103 72 83 98 58 35 33 39 32 22 26 17 12 8

Feb '02 Mar '02 Apr '02 May '02 Jun '02 Jul '02 Aug '02 Sept '02 Oct '02 Nov '02 Dec '02 Jan '03 Feb '03 Mar '03 Apr '03

Lincoln Navigator Fenders

• Converted fenders to TCA August / September ‘02

• Level defect rate for TCA 1X primed vs. standard SMC 2X

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

MONTHLY 454 244 292 172 125 103 62 23 27 25 18 27 23 46 14

Feb '02 Mar '02 Apr '02 May '02 Jun '02 Jul '02 Aug '02 Sept '02 Oct '02 Nov '02 Dec '02 Jan '03 Feb '03 Mar '03 Apr '03

Ford Mustang Hood• Terminator, GT Hoods and

Decklid converted to TCA• Defect rate reduced to 0-

20• Mach 1 launched with TCA

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

MONTHLY 50 32 14 13 9 6 18 11 0 0 0 0 0 0

Oct. 02 Base

Oct. 02 GT

Nov. 02 Base

Nov. 02 GT

Dec. 02 Base

Dec. 02 GT

Jan. 03 Base

Jan. 03 GT

Feb. 03 Base

Feb. 03 GT

Mar. 03 Base

Mar. 03 GT

April 03 Base

April 03 GT

Paint pop Data Collection Suspended

by Assembly Plant

Ford Mustang Decklid

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

MONTHLY 20.4 11.8 12.8 19.9 11.8 9.9 7.8 5.3 2.9 1.3

May-02 Jun-02 Jul-02 Aug-02 Sep-02 Oct-02 Nov-02 Dec-02 Jan-03 Feb-03 Mar-03 Apr-03

Paint pop Data collection suspendedby assembly plant

Ford Econoline Hood

• Converted to TCA February 2003

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

MONTHLY 57 122 47 38 23 71 49 53 65 120 93 105 19 6 4

Feb '02 Mar '02 Apr '02 May '02 Jun '02 Jul '02 Aug '02Sept '02

Oct '02 Nov '02 Dec '02 Jan '03 Feb '03 Mar '03 Apr '03

Conversion to TCA

What next???• Remove the Class ‘A’ SMC Stigma at

OEMs– Tough Class ‘A’– UV Thermal Primer– New primer-sealer technologies

• SMC Consistency Program– Best practices (compounding and

molding)– Defect traceability– Eliminate variability

SMC Consistency Improvement Plan

• Target programs for improvement• Identify Key Performance Criteria (KPCs)

– as defined by customer (molding plant or OEM)

• Target broad cross-section of causes for inconsistencies (Control Factors / CFs)

• Form cross-functional teams to focus on this effort

• Stepwise regression of defects vs. CFs• Develop a sound engineering basis for the

effort

SMC Consistency Roadmap

yesno

Data Gathering

Implement in production

Establish CF statistical capability

Data Gathering to verify improvement

Conduct experiments to verify failure mode

Data Analysis - identify possible CF's

Brainstorm - understand failure mode

failure mode

identified ?

Acknowledgements

• SPE

• Ford GPE

• AOC

• Red Spot

• TK-Budd Team