They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To A - SME · PDF filefor the hoods of the Dodge Viper and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as well as certain body panels for high-performance

September 2014 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 77

A new era has dawned in motorized vehicle

manufacturing. Until recently the domi-

nant trend has been the implementation

of lean manufacturing and continuous

improvement processes to make automo-

tive production more efficient.

The new trend also stresses efficiency, but now there is a

sharp focus on fuel efficiency driven by government regula-

tion. (Even though production efficiency is being forced to

take a back seat, it will still play a part in this new era.)

While lightweighting is the term being widely applied to

this new era, it is a bit of a misnomer. Lighter materials will

Ford is pioneering the use of an aluminum

alloy body for a mass-produced vehicle

with its 2015 F-150 pickup.

They Don’t Make ‘EmLike They Used ToDemand for greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions is changing the face of motorized vehicle manufacturing

James D. SawyerExecutive Editor

Motorized Vehicles—Manufacturing TrendsPhoto courtesy Ford Motor Co.

certainly play a major role, but key drivers also include what

components will be lightweighted, what powertrains will be

used to meet fuel-efficiency targets and what assembly tech-

niques will be employed in motorized vehicle manufacturing

going forward.

Aluminum, after decades of small but steady growth, is

on the verge of the big time, according to The Aluminum

Association. Previously used in powertrain components,

wheels and suspension parts, aluminum is about to sub-

stitute for steel in some mass-market automotive bodies.

The 2015 model of the Ford F-150—the top-selling vehicle

in North America—is kicking off this change by using an

aluminum alloy body atop a high-strength steel frame. This

pickup is the first high-volume vehicle to be produced with

an aluminum body, said Doug Richman, chairman of the

technical committee of the Aluminum Association Trans-

portation Group and Kaiser Aluminum’s vice president of

engineering and technology.

Weight Savings of up to 700 Pounds

The fuel efficiency benefit of the shift to an aluminum

body, according to Doug Scott, Ford Truck Group marketing

manager, is that it is “going to take up to 700 lb [315 kg] of

weight out of the vehicle.”

According to Ducker Worldwide in the 2015 North

American Light Vehicle Aluminum Content Study conducted

for the Aluminum Association, per vehicle usage of alumi-

num grew from 75 lb (34 kg) in 1975 to 350 lb (158 kg) in

2012 and is forecasted to reach 547 lb (248 kg) in 2025.

Compared to today’s vehicles which have about 10% of their

curb weight made up of aluminum, 16% of the weight of

vehicles will be made up of aluminum.

“Our findings indicate that by 2025 26% of all the body and

closure parts [hoods, doors, tailgates, etc.] for light vehicles in

North America will be made of aluminum,” said Richman.

Looked at another way, the use of aluminum in the aver-

age light vehicle produced in North America grew by 7 lb

(3.15 kg) a year from 1975 to 2013.

It will grow by 14 lb (6.4 kg) per year

every year from 2014 through 2025.

In most cases these aluminum alloys

will substitute for steel components of a

greater weight.

And aluminum is not alone in throw-

ing down the gauntlet. Steel also faces a

challenge from composites.

Composites on the Way

Until 2014 carbon-based compos-

ites had been used almost exclusively

for the hoods of the Dodge Viper and

the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as

well as certain body panels for high-

performance vehicles such as select

BMW models. In 2014 BMW introduced

the i3, an electric compact car with its

body—or Life module, as BMW calls

it—made of carbon fiber reinforced

composite. The Life module is bonded

to an aluminum frame that contains the

vehicle’s batteries. A front subframe

contains the front suspension while a

rear subframe holds both the rear sus-

pension and the i3’s powertrain.

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78 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | September 2014

Motorized Vehicles—Manufacturing Trends

While the innovative BMW is the most composite-intensive

passenger vehicle to be made available for purchase, its sales

volumes are likely to be quite small given the time it takes

to cure composites and the costs of the high-tech material

(for more details, visit http://tinyurl.com/hifiber). Still, it is a

pioneering step that could lead to success such as aluminum

is enjoying.

The big hurdle for composites to clear, according to Rani

Richardson, CATIA Composites Product Specialist at Dassault

Systèmes, is lack of experience. Richardson has a wealth of

experience working with composites in both the aerospace

and the automotive industries, and said she agrees with a poll

in Reinforced Plastics Magazine that found readers believe

“the biggest challenge in the composites industry today is

‘Poor knowledge of composites in end-user industries.’”

“One of the things we need to get smarter about,” she said

“is how to take what we know about aerospace to automotive.

Aerospace structures are very rigid, but cars shouldn’t be, so

we may have to use different materials in auto composites

than in aero.

“We also need to know,” Richardson said, “about the ma-

chine tools out there so we know what can be done on what.”

Digital Solutions

Dassault played a role in creating the composite-bodied

BMW i3.

“It is a big effort. I think the entire supply chain knows

what a big effort goes into something like the BMW i3,” Rich-

ardson said. “There is still a lack of knowledge on the part

of many people about the software available to manufacture

composites for automotive.”

Stiff as these challenges from emerging materials may be,

reports of steel’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

While the Aluminum Association’s Richman notes that

steel’s role is diminishing from the commanding position

it once held, even the Ducker report admits that steel will



remain as the principal material used in the average light

vehicle produced in North America. Part of this is due to the

lower cost of steel (at least currently) as well as the massive

capital investment that has been made in the material over a

couple of centuries.

In addition, steel is not giving up without a fight.

The companies that make up Big Steel, in conjunction

with automakers, have been researching and developing new,

stronger and, yes, lighter types of steel for decades.

Yet, it may be Little Steel that rides to the rescue. Really,

really little steel. NanoSteel, in fact.

Advancing the Science of Steel

NanoSteel Company Inc. (Providence, RI), designs

proprietary nano-structured steel material. The company has

researched, developed and commercialized surface coatings

and foils since its founding in 2002. These products have

been used in the oil & gas, mining cement/concrete and

power industries. Now NanoSteel’s Advanced High Strength

Steel sheet is on the verge of being used in automotive bodies

in white (BIW). NanoSteel has developed a new class of nano-

structured advanced high strength steel (AHSS) which deliv-

ers high strength and high ductility in a cold-formable steel.

“It will allow automakers to use thinner gauges of steel

to lightweight vehicles without compromising safety,” said

Craig Parsons, NanoSteel president. “This material provides

the unique combination of high tensile strength and high

ductility properties resulting in performance beyond the

boundaries of existing AHSS

sheet materials.”

Furthermore, he said, it

can be used cost effectively in

the existing automotive parts

manufacturing infrastructure.

“Our new material can take

advantage of the steel indus-

try’s current capacity,” Parsons

said. “Aluminum requires new

investment to reconfigure parts

stamping equipment and add

new processes such as extru-

sion lines. There is not enough

aluminum sheet production or

capacity in the world to fully

supply the entire automotive

industry if steel were to sud-

denly disappear.”

The upshot is that going

forward the world of motorized

vehicles will be even more of

a multimaterial world than it is now and that the majority of

those materials by weight will be metals. A large reason for the

reliance on metal is, as mentioned, an infrastructure already

exists and well-known construction techniques abound in the

auto industry even though there may be some hurdles to clear

in the joining of dissimilar metals (see article on page 93).

Dissimilar Materials

There is one surprising instance in which dissimilar materi-

als are being joined, and that is in the new 2.7-l V6 that will be

available in the aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150.

Using a structure similar to one that was common more

than a decade ago, the turbocharged engine uses an engine

block containing iron. (The majority of modern engines use

aluminum for both block and head.) Where the twin-turbo

2.7-l differs from its predecessors is that the upper section

of its block is of compacted graphite iron (CGI) and the lower

section is made of aluminum.



BMW i3 has its carbon fiber reinforced composite body bonded to an aluminum frame

that holds the vehicle’s batteries. A front subframe contains the front suspension, a rear

subframe holds both the rear suspension and the i3’s powertrain.

Pho

to c

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esy

BM

W G

roup

The upper section is composed of an iron casting, which

includes the cylinders, and the main bearing caps. The lower

part is a ladder frame design of die-cast aluminum that bolts

onto the iron upper block.

While diesel engines commonly use CGI blocks, this is

the first time the material has been used for the block of a

gasoline engine. CGI provides the strength of normal cast

iron, but with reduced weight.

“Previous engine block design

choices were high strength or compact

or lightweight,” said Ed Waszczenko,

engine systems supervisor. “We wanted

to go further with the 2.7-l EcoBoost and

design an engine with compact struc-

ture and high strength and light weight.”

The weight part of the equation is ob-

vious. The strength part is due to the fact

that Ford will use high levels of “boost”

or pressure produced by the engine’s two

turbochargers to deliver the torque levels

that pickup drivers expect. The 2015

small-displacement V6 is rated at 375

lb-ft, virtually the same output generated

by the nearly twice as large 2014 5.0-l

V8 (380 lb-ft).

Tooling up for Turbos

The use of turbochargers is another

accelerating trend in motorized vehicle

manufacturing. The forced induction

they provide allows small displace-

ment engines to be used in applications

once reserved for larger displacement

engines with more cylinders. In theory

the turbocharger acts as on off/on switch.

A four-cylinder engine thus can deliver

small-engine fuel economy when the

turbo is “off” and deliver big-engine

power (but greater fuel consumption)

when the turbo is engaged. An added

advantage is that big-engine power is

available at small-engine weight, another

fuel efficiency consideration.

An example of this swap of a little

engine for a big one occurred when the

2011 Hyundai Sonata midsize sedan

debuted with a 2.0-l turbocharged four-

cylinder in place of the 3.3-l normally

aspirated V6 that had been offered

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previously. Ford followed a similar path

with its Fusion midsize sedan for the

2013 model year when it substituted a

turbo four for a V6.

Another sign of the small-engine

surge are turbocharged three-cylinder

engines being offered by General Mo-

tors (only in Europe for now), BMW’s

Mini brand and Ford. Toyota also

has announced that it will soon offer

a turbo three-cylinder engine. Dis-

placement of these engines is in the

1.0–1.5-l range.

An increase in the use of turbo-

charging will quite naturally lead to

more demand for turbochargers,

which require precise machining for

not only the turbocharger impeller but



Siemens, Comau and Ford collaborated to have a section of the ComauFlex

system at the Ford display during the Detroit Auto Show.

the impeller housing as well. The same can be said for su-

perchargers, another device that boosts induction in internal

combustion engines. The market for superchargers is also

growing. Eaton Corp. expects the global market for boosted

engines of both types will grow from 4 million to 17.5 million

in 2017 (for more details visit http://tinyurl.com/forcedair).

Other powertrain trends will impact manufacturing. The

growing number of gears being used in automatic transmissions

to help achieve fuel efficiency is a move that has been afoot for

a few years (for more details visit http://tinyurl.com/gearmaking).

Are EVs Dead?

While internal combustion engines are not fading away as

quickly as once was thought, pure electric vehicles are not

capturing market share as quickly as some predicted in the

wake of President Barack Obama’s call in his 2011 State of

the Union address to have a million electric vehicles on US

roads by 2015. Between December 2010, when 19 battery

electric vehicles (BEVs) were sold, and July 1, 2014, only

82,817 of these vehicles were purchased in the US, according

to the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

Sales of BEVs are so low that Morgan Stanley Research

issued a market study recently titled, EVs Are Dead, Long Live Tesla. Elon Musk’s luxury sedan was singled out for praise,

wrote Morgan Stanley researcher Adam Jonas, because,

“Tesla’s true success is making compelling performance

vehicles that just happen to be EVs.” The majority of auto

industry observers praise the Tesla Model S as an exceptional

car regardless of the powertrain.

Perhaps more tellingly, Toyota, which has sold more than

a million HEVs in the US over the course of nearly 20 years,

has turned its back on BEVs. The Japanese auto giant has

withdrawn from an agreement to procure components for a

RAV4 EV from Tesla.

Automotive News quoted Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota’s

North American region, as saying the company believes BEVs



are beneficial only in “a select way, in short-range vehicles

that take you that extra mile, from the office to the train, or

home to the train, as well as being used on large [corporate]

campuses. But for long-range travel primary vehicles, we feel

there are better alternatives, such as

hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and tomor-

row with fuel cells,”

Hybrid Market Share Seems Static

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have

done much better than BEVs, with

592,232 HEVs, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs)

and extended-range electric vehicles

like the Chevrolet Volt being sold in

2013 alone.

The growth of the hybrid segment

may be in the past, however.

A study by IHS/Polk released in

May 2014 found that “the number

of hybrid models in U.S. showrooms

has increased every year from 2009

through this year, but their market

share has not kept pace. Hybrid share

actually declined from 2009 to 2010

and again from 2013 to 2014, despite

an increase in model count during both

these time periods.”

Toyota will not turn its back on HEVs

anytime soon, but it is turning toward

EVs that rely on fuel cells.

In April 2015 it will began sales of a

fuel cell sedan in Japan. The fuel cell

will convert hydrogen to electricity. It

will have an estimated price of about

$70,000. Later that year sales will begin

in the US and Europe. Pricing in these

markets has not been hinted at.

More Fuel Cells are Coming

When Toyota’s fuel cell vehicle

(FCV) goes on sale in the US next sum-

mer, it will be a year behind Hyundai

in marketing such a powertrain in

America. The Korean carmaker leased

the first Tucson Fuel Cell crossover in

the US to a California family in June. The FCV began mass

production for the US market in April 2014 at Hyundai’s

Ulsan, Korea, assembly plant that also manufactures the

Tucson gasoline-powered CUV. The company claims that this

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ME-HSL Walter IMTS-Is half.indd 1 6/2/2014 9:29:02 AMSeptember 2014 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 89

is “world’s only mass-produced fuel cell vehicle.” And—at

least for now—it is.

Nissan plans to introduce its first FCV in 2017. Honda

expects to be producing FCVs by 2020 and is collaborating

with GM on the technology. Ford, Daimler, BMW and other

automakers are known to have FCV programs as well.

As a consequence of this search for high fuel efficiency

and low exhaust emissions vehicles will become even more

complex than they are now. In many cases that greater com-

plexity will have to fit in a smaller envelope. And of course, it

will all have to weigh less.

Software will play a big role in achieving this, both for met-

al and composites. CAD/CAM and metal have worked hand in

hand for years, but now topology—the shapes and voids in a

component—is becoming an even bigger part of the process

in order for components to have the necessary strength and

functionality at the lightest weight.

As noted above, Dassault software played a large role

in creating the composite-bodied BMW i3. Siemens PLM

Software also has expertise in software for the design and

layup of composite structures. It has worked on a number of

automotive projects and has years of experience in the use of

composite bodies in Formula One Racing.

On the Factory Floor

As vehicles and the technology in them become more

complicated and complex, digital solutions have become

more important. It is now common for manufacturing

facilities to be laser scanned. The data acquired is then

used by digital manufacturing software from Autodesk as

well as Siemens and Dassault to lay out the most efficient

theoretical factory floor plan and then prove out the layout

through simulation.

More efficient manufacturing hardware is coming into play

as well. An example of this was shown at the 2014 Detroit

Auto Show as part of the display used

to introduce the aluminum-bodied

2015 Ford F-150.

Called ComauFlex, it is a flexible

BIW manufacturing strategy from

Comau Inc., part of the Comau Group.

According to Martin Kinsella, Comau

Inc.’s director of Advanced Materials

and Process Technology, rather than

being “on a traditional manufactur-

ing footprint, ComauFlex moves to an

engineered footprint based on flexible

manufacturing management, flexible

logistics, flexible conveyance and flex-

ible tooling.”

The flexibility can allow cars, SUVs,

light trucks and minivans to be built

in the same facility, he said. “It can

allow a random build sequence with

up to four different vehicle types mov-

ing through the system one after the

other or it can handle batch builds,”

he noted. In addition it can accommodate scalable production

rates, diverse materials and diverse joining methods.

“Furthermore,” Kinsella said, “it does not require truss

supports or equipment in pits.”

“The system could be placed in a warehouse,” he

said,”because it is ground based with little or no roof-based

fitments. All components are designed to be transported on

standard trucks with no need for a ‘wide-load’ escort. And as

a rule of thumb it results in a reduction of 20 to 40% over a

traditional manufacturing footprint. ”

More information on ComauFlex may be found at http://

tinyurl.com/comauflex. ME



The first Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell crossovers to be imported to the US roll off a

freighter in California.

Pho

to c

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Hyu

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Mot

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Documents

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To A - SME · PDF filefor the hoods of the Dodge Viper and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as well as certain body panels for high-performance