Abstract: The meter shell was decorated with a polypropylene film. And the film thickness and its deforming distribution in x, y direction were obtained through finite element simulation, and the influencing factors of film forming were analyzed. Aiming at the goal of the minimum standard deviation of average film thickness and its deforming distribution in x, y direction, the process parameters were optimized and analyzed using design of experiment method. Optimization gave the maximum film thickness of 0.2013 mm, and the minimum thickness was 0.1883 mm. The maximum deformation of the film in x and y direction were 3.125 and 3.250 mm, respectively.

Key words: instrument panel, outside mold decoration, simulation, optimization