Motorized Vehicles—Manufacturing Trends
certainly play a major role, but key drivers also include what components will be lightweighted, what powertrains will be used to meet fuel-effi ciency 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 effi ciency benefi t of the shift to an aluminum
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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 fi ndings 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 fi ber 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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