Automotive lightweight solutions with Metawell® aluminium panels

Energy saving, lightweight construction and recycling are critical requirements in the automotive industry. With Metawell® aluminium panels, these requirements can be implemented in a versatile and consistent manner in vehicle construction, e. g. cars, sports cars, buses, trucks and caravans.

For over 30 years Metawell® panels have been used successfully in various designs for small to medium series as well as for special vehicles in the automotive industry. The variety of vehicles for the most diverse purposes place enormous demands on the flexibility of the used materials. Metawell® aluminium sandwich panels are the perfect choice. Metawell® aluminium panels are especially well-suited for surface applications that require high component rigidity combined with low weight. Compared to solid aluminium panels of the same rigidity, the weight can be reduced up to 80 %. With Metawell® Aluflex form-bonded components such as diffusors, interior equipment and reinforceing elements can be realized easily.

Metawell cooperates closely with leading automotive OEMs and supplies customized lightweight construction components: from semi-finished panels, to CNC-machined, to prefabricated elements up to finished components.

  • Weight reduction of up to 80 % compared to solid aluminium sheet with same rigidity

  • Rigidity and crash safety

  • Advantageous alignment of wave direction to the main loading zones

  • Resistance to corrosion, chipping and moisture

  • 100 % recyclable

  • Materials comply with the requirements of EU Directive 2000/53/EC on End-of-Life Vehicles

Passenger vehicles and sports cars

Metawell® aluminium sandwich panels can be used in many ways in the design of passenger vehicles and sports cars: supporting body parts of high strength can be realised as well as crash elements which must absorb enormous forces through plastic deformation. With its smooth, even surface and lightweight, Metawell® is ideally suited as an underbody for high-speed sports cars.

Key advantages already become apparent during manufacturing: thanks to its high rigidity, relatively few joining points are required to fix the Metawell® underbody to the body. Metawell® Aluflex is especially formable and thus just the right material for manufacturing curved components – such as the rear diffusor.

Trucks, caravans and special vehicles

Metawell® aluminium panels and prefabricated elements are often installed in trucks, caravans and special vehicles. They provide the required strength for driver cab rear walls, roofs, floors and doors without adding unnecessary weight to a vehicle. With individual rack systems and extensions, special vehicles can be configured flexibly for their particular purpose.

Buses

Materials that are used in bus construction are required to withstand many different types of stress. Metawell® aluminium sandwich panels meet all requirements – no matter whether they are used as durable interior fitting, load bearing body parts or reinforcing elements.

Ceilings

Metawell® Aluflex is used for ceiling elements. The curved sandwich elements are characterized by their light weight, shape stability, simple shaping and good adaptation to existing color concepts (coating, lacquering, printing, laminating or powder coating on request).

Floors

Metawell® floor panels are used to save weight and to absorb high surface and point loads. The stability must be sufficient to safely secure elements such as support rods or seat groups. With their bending stiffness, the floor panels are intended to enlarge the spans, while being as light as possible.

Boot floors

More stability, longer service life: in coaches, boot floors made of Metawell® aluminium panels have proven to be valuable, because of their bending strength and resistance to corrosion, chipping and moisture. Another advantage compared to traditional wooden floor panels is the significant weight reduction.

Side flaps

Because of its low weight, Metawell® Aluflex is the ideal reinforcing material for side flaps of coaches. It can be easily formed and therefore it can be adapted to the exterior skin without much effort.

Access systems

The advantages of Metawell® aluminium panels can also be seen, when used for hand folding ramps, electrical ramps and lift systems. These components are not only exposed to extreme point loads (e.g. stones under shoes), but also to high corrosion (e.g. road salt). Metawell® aluminium sandwich panels are ideally suited for the high loads of access systems in vehicle design thanks to

  • Primered aluminium sheets of the highest surface quality for optimum corrosion protection
  • Advantageous alignment of the corrugations according to the main loading zones
  • Fire safety certification in accordance to directive 95/28/EC

*material available only project related