Peguform is using a Quadrant material to make bumper beams for Peugeot

Plastic has displaced metal in a car bumper beam for the first time since 1998, when tighter crash impact requirements ended the use of plastic in the application.

Quadrant has supplied a new form of glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) to Peguform France to press plastic rear bumper beams for the new Peugeot 407 car. Speaking at the AVK-TV conference this week, Peguform’s Dr Thierry Renault said the GMT uses outer layers of Saint Gobain’s “Twintex” co-mingled glass and polypropylene fibres.

He said Peguform had supplied two front bumper beams in the material to the PSA/Fiat Sevelnord plant in northern France since 1998, but these parts were designed to fulfil only parking impact tests. The Peugeot 407 beams meet both European parking impact and the AZT crash test with a 1,000kg trolley at 16 km/h.

The rear bumper beam weighs 2.4kg and is 40% lighter than an equivalent design in steel. Production is 1,300 parts a day for the Peugeot Sedan and SW models.