VMA - vehicle assembly and manufacturing The Energy Cost of Making an Automobile

Presentation in 2015 FGS (Weizmann Inst.) Guided Reading Course

Energy and SustainabilityYehonatan Ben Zvi

History

Karl Benz, the German mechanical engineer who designed and in 1885 built the world's first practical automobile.

Henry Ford in 1913 installs the first moving assembly line. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes

Life cycle of vehicle

1. Material production

2. Product assembly – VMA

3. Product use

4. Maintenance and repair

5. End of life “Though less understood, the burdens for part manufacturing andvehicle assembly, henceforth denoted as the VMA stage, appearto be the largest in magnitude” Sullivan et al. 2012

VMAMaterial Processing

Parts Production

Vehicle Assembly

Argonne National Laboratory, 2012

Raw materials

Assembly line

Body Chassis

Next step

• Most small vehicles such as small SUV’s and sedans use a unibody (or monocoque) construction.

Vehicle main materials

• Steel 54%• Iron 10%• Plastic 10%• Rubber 7%• Aluminum 6.4%• Glass 2.8%• Copper 1.7%• Lead 0.8%• Others 7% (sealants, fluids)

Sullivan et al. 2012

Activities in the VMA

Metal FormingStampingExtruding

CastingMachining

Forging

Polymer FormingInjection Molding

Compression Molding

HVAC & LightWelding

Compressed air

Painting

Sullivan, A. Burnham, and M. Wang., 2010

Material transformation Assembly Operations

Material Transformation Data

Casting Aluminum 55 MJ/kg Iron 32 MJ/kgForging 45 MJ/kgInjection Molding 25 MJ/kgCompression Molding 13 MJ/kgStamping 5 MJ/kgExtruding 7 MJ/kg

Material Transformation (MT)Vehicle weight – 1532 kg

Iron (10%) 153 kg

Casting (85%) 32MJ/kg Forging (15%) 45.1MJ/kg

130 kg made by casting 4160MJ 23 kg made by forging 1031MJ/kg

5191 MJ

Energy required for MT

• Steel (54%) 4871MJ• Iron (10%) 5195 MJ• Aluminum (6.4%) 4262 MJ• Plastic (10%) 2124 MJ• Rubber (7%) 1947 MJ• Glass (2.8%) 800MJ• Copper (1.7%) 393 MJ• Lead (0.9%) 441 MJ

20000 MJ

Assembly Operations

Machining 982 MJ

Vehicle painting 4,167MJ

Welding 920 MJ

HVAC & lighting 3,335 MJ

Total Energy Cost for VMA

Material Transformation 20000 MJ

Assembly Operations 14500 MJ

34500 MJ

Hu et al. 1995 30600 MJSullivan et al. 1998 39000 MJBurnham et al. 2010 33924MJ

Raw Materials Production

During the VMA stage, production-ready materials in the form of ingots, billets, sheet stock, pellets, rods, etc., are delivered to factories where parts are fabricated and ultimately assembled into a vehicle.

How much energy does it take (on average) to produce 1 kilogram of the raw materials?

Iron (from iron ore): 20-25MJSteel (from iron): 20-50MJAluminum (from bauxite): 227-342MJ 83400MJ

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/what-is-the-embodied-energy-of-materials.html

Future of the Car Industry

Top 5 Advanced Car Technologies by 2020

• Autonomous Vehicle

• Biometric Vehicle Access

• Active Window Displays

• Active Health Monitoring

• Reconfigurable Body PanelsForbs,Jan 19, 2015

The Move to Aluminum

Aluminum

Mass reduction

ACCELERATION BRAKING HANDLING DRIVING COMFORT

The first production vehicle to move to an Al frame was the Audi A8 in 1994.

Today’s Car Aluminum Content

car body- bonnets & doors- front structure- bumper beams

26kg

chassis & suspension- wheels- suspension arms- steering system

37kg

drivetrain- engine block & cylinder head- transmission housings- radiators

69kg

Total aluminum content = 132kg

Aluminum vs. Steel

Material properties

Density:

– Aluminum 2,700 kg/m3

– Steel 7,750 kg/m3

Weight reduction is seldom achieved since it is necessary to increase the average thickness of aluminum compared to steel to achieve the same part characteristics

EUROPEAN ALUMINIUM ASSOCIATION, Aluminum in cars, 2012.

In total Aluminum structure is much more expensive than conventional Steel design

Energy cost

Raw materials:

Aluminum is 7 times more expensive than steel

Conversion cost:

Aluminum is 8 times more expensive than steel

• A model for calculating the energy burdens of the part manufacturing and

vehicle assembly (VMA) stage of the vehicle life cycle.

• This model based on a process-level approach, accounting for all significant

materials by their transformation processes and assembly line operation

activities.

• When the model is applied to a well-characterized conventional vehicle, the

estimated cumulative energy consumption is 34.5 gigajoules/vehicle.

• Regardless of the construction technique, steel is still the predominant

material used in automotive frames.

Thank you!!

References1. Sullivan et al., 2012 Part Manufacturing and Vehicle Assembly Model Journal of Industrial

Ecology2. Sullivan et al., 1998a, Automotive Life Cycle Assessment: Overview, Metrics, and Examples.3. Sullivan, J. L. and Hu, J., 1995, Life Cycle Energy Analysis for Vehicles.4. EUROPEAN ALUMINIUM ASSOCIATION, Aluminum in cars, 20125. Sullivan, A. Burnham, and M. Wang., 2010 Energy-Consumption and Carbon-Emission

Analysis of Vehicle and Component Manufacturing, Argonne National Laboratory