Enhancing Automotive Bumper Performance through Advanced Materials, Surface Treatments, and Design Optimization

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Printing Science and Technology, Institute for Color Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Polymer Engineering, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran,

Abstract

Automotive bumpers play a pivotal role in vehicle safety by effectively absorbing impact energy during collisions. Polypropylene (PP) composites reinforced with ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber have attracted great attention in automotive bumper production due to their high impact strength and flexibility. However, they suffer from low surface tension due to the non-polarity of their olefinic base, resulting in poor wettability and coating adhesion strength. Various surface treatment techniques, such as flame, plasma, and chemical treatments, have been carried out to overcome the aforementioned issues; among them, flame treatment has attracted great attention, especially in industry, as a result of its low cost. The current study has focused on optimizing four flame treatment parameters, including air pressure inside the cabin, gas flame pressure, flame/ surface gap, and treatment time using experimental design methodologies, particularly Robust Design of Experiments (DoE). Different analyses were carried out to determine the best process conditions of flame treatment to optimize the bumper properties (i.e., surface tension, adhesion strength, immersion strength, moisture strength, high-pressure wash (water jet) strength and adhesion strength after humidification and after immersion).

The obtained results indicate that gas flame pressure, flame/ surface gap, and treatment time have the most impact on responses, and the optimum treatment conditions are 10 cm distance between sample surface and flame, 120 s treatment time, and gas flame pressure equal to 200-220 mbar.

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Main Subjects

Progress in Color, Colorants and Coatings

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 June 2026

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