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In 1925, several years before the first Volkswagen rolled off from the production
line, the front and rear bumper become a standard equipment on all vehicles. It
featured a simple metal bar or metal blade attached to the front and rear of the
vehicle that serves as a first line of protective part when the vehicle had an
impact. In 1945, Volkswagen adopted the bumper “technology” to their Beetle- an
exteded aluminum bar attached to the platform of the Beetle.
Today, as it become of the most important parts that protects the vehicle, bumpers
have evolved from a simple metal bar exension into a sophisticated mold of either
sheet metal, aluminum, rubber, fiberglass, light metal, or plastic.
In the early Volkswagen vehicles like the Beetle in 1945, Beetle Cabriolet in
1949, 1500 in 1961, and 411 in 1968 used the the extended bar as a bumper. But
as the bumpers evolved, Volkswagen adopted bumpers in the form of plastic, light
metal, and aluminum like in their newer Golf, Polo, Scirocco, Jetta, and Passat.
Thier new version of Beetle adopted the thermoplastic olefin, a Dexflex® 162HF
thermoplastic olefin (TPO) in fact thaw was developed by Solvay Engineered Polymers
(Auburn Hills, MI). The thermoplastic component was first used to the Saturn vehicles
in the early 1990s. It was lighter, more reliable, and posses the same proporties
with alloy made-bumpers. But the TPO on the Beetle posses a low-temperature impact
resistance with a good coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE), and painted
durability. And to meet the standard of Volkswagen engineers it must have a high
melt flow rate for processing by the molder, Plastic Omnium .
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Featured
Volkswagen Bumpers
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