Materialise and Röchling Automotive have closely collaborated on the development of a set of wheel arch liners for the new Volvo convertible C70, which was introduced to the market the end of 2005. Volvo needed a series of wheel arch liners to be assembled during the first building phase. In this early stage typically 25 cars are assembled on which to complete the first tests.
Materialise moulded the wheel arch liners by means of reaction injection moulding (RIM) technology. Four RIM tools were made using machined PU mould cores combined with hand lay-up cavities. Materialise moulded the wheel arch liners in their RIM2 PU, which is ideally suited for this application.