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Automotive vocabulary · Body Structure and Safety

Body-in-white

Meaning in automotive, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In automotive, body-in-white means: The stage of car production at which the sheet metal parts of the body have been welded together, before painting and before the engine, trim and other parts are added.

In Turkish: beyaz gövde, ham gövde, BIW

How it is used

Shortened to BIW. Used in body engineering and plant talk: BIW weight, BIW stiffness, BIW shop. Engineers try to reduce BIW weight with high-strength steel and aluminum while keeping crash performance.

Example sentences

  1. The body-in-white weighs 285 kg, about 20 kg less than the previous model.

  2. Each body-in-white is measured on the CMM before it goes to the paint shop.

Common collocations

  • BIW weight
  • BIW stiffness
  • body shop
  • high-strength steel
  • unibodyA construction in which the body and the frame are one welded structure that carries all the loads. Almost all modern passenger cars and crossovers are built this way.
  • spot weldingA welding method in which two electrodes press sheets of metal together and pass a strong current through them, melting a small spot that joins the sheets. A car body has thousands of spot welds.
  • paint shopThe area of a car plant, or a repair workshop, where bodies are cleaned, coated against corrosion and painted. In a plant the main layers are e-coat, primer, base coat and clear coat.
  • crumple zoneA part of the vehicle body, usually at the front and rear, designed to fold in a controlled way during a collision so that it absorbs energy and protects the passenger cell.

More terms: Body Structure and Safety

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