Iveco is part of the Fiat Group headquartered in Turin, Italy with global assembly operations. In 2001, Iveco staffed an office at the Fiat Automotive plant in Sete Lagoas, Brasil. In 2004, Iveco started assembling trucks in Sete Lagoas. The Purchasing Department was aware of the need to nationalize large part assemblies due to high import duties, transportation costs and complex production logistics. A local molder had introduced them to a new material/process technology named Metton® liquid molding resin which provided a tough & durable plastic material with excellent paint adhesion and surface quality. Iveco Engineering wanted to wait for the next vehicle re-design to consider local material/process options. Iveco’s premier truck, Stralis, started the re-design process in the 2008 timeframe. The molder and Metton America worked with Iveco Engineering to optimize the part designs. In March 2009, a Metton LMR option had been specified for the bumper and grille.
Metton LMR starts as a liquid with no fiberglass or other fillers and injected into a closed mold cavity. The cavity pressure is 15 to 30 psi so large parts are easily moldable in aluminum molds (prototype in composite molds) with a cycle time in the 4 to 6 minute range. Both the bumper and grille are two-piece designs so the inner reinforcement and outer-skins are bonded with a structural adhesive which has excellent adhesion. The molder had been molding and bonding a spoiler for the Fiat Strada Pickup truck since 1999. They have molded more than 400,000 part sets from the same-machined aluminum mold and they believe it will last more than 1,000,000 parts. Next, the molder needed to expand production capacity. They selected the Afros Division of Cannon (Italy) for their reaction injection molding (RIM) unit. They selected an A Compact 200 FC injection unit with the capacity to inject up to 40 kg shots with a multi mix-head control system to allow up to five molds in serial production. The engineering staff at the molder was able to design clamps or mold opening/closing devices to accommodate all molds with expandable production capacity. The Iveco Stralis bumper and grille for the Brasil and Argentina plants started full production in June, 2011. In Europe, the parts are injection molded with ABS outer skins and fiberglass reinforced polypropylene inner reinforcements. Metton LMR has better low temperature impact, excellent adhesive bond strength, paint adhesion and dramatically lower tooling cost. The molder is INBRASP located in Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
