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23 Dec 2008  -  United States

Body of service and delivery vehicle

© AOC

For many businesses, one of the right tools for service and delivery jobs is the strong, durable, aerodynamic and lightweight Astro Body vehicle. Professions and trades who find the Astro Body supreme include electricians, locksmiths, pest control, florist, parts delivery, contractors, remodelers, telecommunications, security system services and professional photographers. 

The key to the vehicle’s design and performance is its fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite construction. With help from Altek® resin technology from AOC, Supreme Corporation manufactures the Astro Body for assembly by General Motors on Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon chassis. 

Designers and engineers used the introduction of new Colorado and Canyon truck platforms in 2007 to create a new kind of service and delivery vehicle. Its superior features are based entirely on customer input. “Customers told us exactly what they needed in a new truck,” said Tim Cavanaugh, GMC Marketing Product Manager for the Astro Body.
“They told us how much interior volume they needed and how much capacity they wanted. They told us they wanted similar fuel economy they had in the former Astro cargo van, and they told us they wanted a vehicle that was five-star crash rated.”

Leveraging Supreme’s experience
To achieve these goals, General Motors partnered with Supreme Corporation to leverage that company’s experience as one of the world’s premier manufacturers of truck bodies. Using wind tunnel tests, the partnership developed an aerodynamic design that combines aesthetic appeal with improved fuel economy.
The enhanced design freedom with molded composites helped engineers most cost-effectively achieve the windswept design with rounded corners. Fuel economy is also served by the high strength-to-weight ratio of the vehicle’s composite structure.
The floor and the body of vehicle are manufactured using two different production processes. Both processes benefit from the quality, consistency and user-friendly processing of Altek unsaturated polyester resin. While the basic resin is the same for each process, the resin formulation is tailored to meet viscosity, gel and cure requirements that are specific to the respective processes.
“We have been using the Altek resin since we started this program two years ago, and there has never been a problem,” says Paul Sabelhaus, Plant Manager of the Lignonier molding facility. “The material gives us very good fiber reinforcement wetting and strong adhesion to core materials. In addition, AOC service and delivery have been excellent.”

How the Astro Body is made
The vehicle floor is supplied by Tower Structural Laminating, a Supreme Corporation company located adjacent to Supreme Corporation’s Astro Body manufacturing facility in Ligonier, Indiana. The Astro Body floor is one of several high strength composite sheet products manufactured by Tower Structural Laminating.
The automated laminating process operates vertically. Plywood sheeting is fed downward through a compressed and heated production system. The wood is encapsulated within a laminate that is reinforced with both chopped glass fibers and fiberglass woven roving in the Altek resin matrix. A gel coat finished that is applied to one side of the composite structure during lamination eventually becomes the vehicle underbody. Astro Body floors are cut to size at the end of the process then transferred to the adjacent molding facility.
To achieve maximum structural integrity, the body of the vehicle is open molded as a single, seamless unit by using a two-piece mold. For optimum wet-out and handling characteristics, all open molding is accomplished with Altek resin.
The composite floor panels placed at the bottom of the mold to be integrally laminated to the rest of the structural body. After mold surface preparation, the initial sequence for open molding the body application of a white gel coat and application of a short fiber-reinforced skin coat. The structural laminate is then applied using mostly chopped fiber spray-up. Foam cores and woven roving are incorporated to strategic locations requiring added stiffness and strength. After the two-part mold is opened and the composite body is removed, aluminum attachment points are bonded to the prepared surface to allow the attachment of bins, shelves, ladder rack and door hardware. Astro Body units are shipped to the GMC plant and assembled to the steel floor frame of the Chevrolet Colorado or GMC Canyon chassis.
Astro Body vehicles are sold exclusively through Chevrolet and GMC dealerships. Because the Astro Body has been designed from the ground up, dealers market the vehicles as state-of-the-art in form and function.

Source : AOC