As part of the joint project "HyDuty – Process and Technology Development for the Production of an Innovative Load Compartment Floor Module Using Integral Lightweight Construction", the aim is to contribute to cost-efficient lightweight construction in the commercial vehicle sector. The background to this is that recent studies on the development of courier, express, and parcel services (CEP) clearly show that national and international shipment volumes have risen sharply in recent years—and continue to increase significantly. To cope with this growing volume, many more delivery vehicles must be deployed. In addition to high investments in the CEP sector, the increasing traffic volume also places additional strain on urban infrastructure.

Two-thirds of the vehicles used by courier, express, and parcel services are light commercial vehicles, including those with a permissible total weight of up to 3.5 tons. The current floor assemblies for these vehicle bodies consist of numerous individual parts, which results in many production and assembly steps. This not only increases time requirements but also costs. Moreover, the lightweight construction potential of such assemblies is limited when simply further developing existing designs without a new and systemic development approach.

To address the goals shown in the figure, this project aims to develop technologies and processes that enable the floor assemblies of cargo bodies for light commercial vehicles to be manufactured using materials not typically used in this application area, in a modular, integral construction method. This will result in a fundamental change in both technology and production processes.