Automotive Engineer

This article reports on the designs and uses of lighter materials for cars, which can decrease vehicle weight to lower fuel consumption, but satisfy safety and environment laws and meet customer demands for increased comfort and convenience. The ULSAB programme by a consortium of 35 steel makers is exploring the potential for using high-strength steels to reduce weight, and uses advanced manufacturing technologies such as laser welding, tailored blanks, and hydroforming. Many car makers are evaluating compacted graphite iron (CGI) for possible use in petrol and diesel cylinder blocks and heads. Aluminium can give an equivalent performance to steel, and save about 60% in weight; its components can be made by casting, forging, sheet and strip, extrusion, powder metallurgy, or superplastic forming. Magnesium is about 1.5 times lighter, but magnesium alloy parts have more dimensional stability than aluminium parts; magnesium damps vibration better than aluminium or steel. Titanium provides the strength of steel at about half its weight, but is expensive. Metal matrix composites for cars are based on aluminium or magnesium with powder or chopped-fibre reinforcement. Plastics are used to reduce weight for a wide variety of components throughout the car. Many different approaches to weight reduction are being used.

D Mann

Automotive engineer

ON MATERIALS FOR LEAN WEIGHT VEHICLES

轻量化车辆材料研究

In 1995, the Ford Motor Company began to review its engineering computing strategy. It evaluated a variety of engineering computing systems and chose the I-DEAS Master Series from SDRC (Structural Dynamics Research Corporation). In collaboration with SDRC, it established the SDRC-Ford Technology Center at Dearborn, MI, USA, and set up a five-year product called 'C3P' (CAD/CAM/CAE plus PIM (product information management). C3P supports concurrent engineering where styling, packaging, design, and manufacturability work together. By standardising on the same CADCAM and CAE systems, it has eliminated most errors in the product development process. C3P enables problems to be identified and corrected, and provides more complete product information earlier in the design stage. Eventually, more than 8000 Ford designers, engineers, and analysts will be trained to use C3P. Ford and SDRC are also working with Ford's suppliers to standardise on I-DEAS software. The I-DEAS Master Series is a fully integrated software package which can be used from the concept stage of design to manufacture; it includes simulation and test applications, test analysis correlation, and finite element model updating. Its Series 5 version provides users with an intuitive way of designing and modifying three-dimensional products.

R Burman

FORD GETS I-DEAS

福特获得I-DEAS

There has been increasing pressure from environmentalists and legislators to increase the extent of recycling in the automotive industry. In 1997, the UK Government signed Accord, an agreement with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the Motor Vehicles Dismantlers, the British Metals Federation, and other organisations, to increase vehicle recycling by 85% by 2005. It has become much easier to achieve this objective because of recent reductions in the numbers of materials used by cars. There are several other common recycling projects and initiatives by automotive companies in Europe. Ford began serious recycling in 1991, by opening its recyling research centre in Germany, and is also trying to make its vehicles more recyclable. Steel is still used more than any other materials in cars, but is almost 100% recyclable. Aluminium has the advantage that the energy needed to recycle it is only 5% of that needed for primary smelting. Magnesium is 100% recyclable and one third lighter than aluminium. However, there is not yet an adequate infrastructure for the difficult task of recycling plastic car parts, so that most of them end up in landfill. The author urges the Government to create a legal framework to encourage environmental improvements, and introduce proper systems to facilitate vehicle recycling.

N Shahmanesh

THE WASTE LINE

《废弃线》

When Mercedes-Benz launched its A-Class nodel in mid-1997, the motoring press called it the most important small car since Issigonis's Mini. Many journalists gave it test drives, but felt that it could do no wrong. Then it failed the elk test, which nobody had heard of, but nobody will forget. The elk test is a violent manoeuvre for any car, but it showed the A-Class car's vulnerability to overturning. It crunched the front of the car, dented the image of Mercedes-Benz for engineering infallibility, and caused the loss of over 3500 orders worldwide. Mercedes-Benz decided to modify the A-Class radically. It fitted larger tyres, and installed Bosch's electronic stability program (ESP), which coordinates all three of the models other electronic systems: (1) its anti-lock braking system (ABS); (2) its anti-slip regulator, which acts in an opposite way to the ABS by activating the brakes on any spinning wheel; and (3) brake assist, which uses sensors to examine how quickly and how hard the brakes are applied in any situation, and increases the brake pressure if necessary. ESP uses additional sensors to assess the precise state of the car and act appropriately.

B Whitworth

OF MOOSE AND MEN

麋鹿与人类

This article reports on how the latest advances in plastic materials are benefiting the most demanding applications in the automotive field. An investigation of the implications of forthcoming legislation on plastic materials in cars, especially in their fuel systems, was presented in a paper at Autotech 97; this study was conducted by the Shell Research and Technology Centre at Amsterdam. Its authors speculated that, in future, operating temperatures in this area would increase to 60-90 degrees C, with peaks up to 120 degrees C, and that the materials used in fuel systems would have to withstand very aggressive fuel additive packages. Further improvements to system integration will be needed, to minimise potential leakage points. The authors also presented the case for the superior fuel permeating behaviour of the polymer Carilon. Both Delphi and Dow Automation have developed glass-filled injection-moulded plastic composite structural cross-car beams, which do not use steel and function as both a structural retainer and a primary HVAC air distribution system. The beams' better performance was validated after analytic modelling and testing. Dow Automotive has collaborated with Chrysler and Venture Industries to develop a head impact system for upper trim that met the latest US Federal regulations.

Publication Information	Publisher: Professional Engineering Publishing，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: trade-journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2015，Proportion of original research papers: ，Self Citation Rate:， Gold OA Rate:

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ON MATERIALS FOR LEAN WEIGHT VEHICLES

FORD GETS I-DEAS

THE WASTE LINE

OF MOOSE AND MEN

CAN YOU TAKE PLASTIC

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Powertrain: Variable compression ratio

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