Automotive Lightweighting Innovators Honored with 2018 Altair Enlighten Awards
TROY, Mich.,
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The winner in the Full Vehicle category was General Motors’ 2019 Chevrolet Silverado, which weighed in at an impressive 450 pounds (204.5 kilograms) lighter than its predecessor.
“It was impressive to see the high quality of this year’s Altair Enlighten Award applications. Nominations from OEMs, suppliers, materials technology companies, start-ups and academia demonstrate the tremendous and varied weight reduction effort being achieved across the global automotive industry,” said judging chair Carla Bailo, President and CEO of CAR. “We were also thrilled at the response to the new Future of Lightweighting category introduced this year, which highlighted some highly innovative solutions holding great promise to advance fuel efficiency and automotive sustainability.”
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The Module category, which focuses on vehicle systems, subsystems and components, was claimed by BMW Group for its 2018 BMW i8 Roadster metal 3D printed convertible roof bracket. This innovative component marks the first time a metal 3D-printed part has been used in a series production vehicle. Produced with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology without needing any support structures, it was also the first time a topology-optimized design has been translated nearly 1:1 into a series production vehicle to capture a 44% weight savings and tenfold stiffness increase.
“We were honored to receive the Altair Enlighten Award this year and would like to thank the judges for recognizing the efforts of the team that worked on the i8,” said Maximilian Meixlsperger, Head of Additive Manufacturing Metal at
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For the Enabling Technology category, which focuses on technological advances enabling manufacturers to save weight, the independent judging panel found the competition too tight and elected to recognize three category award winners:
Asahi Kasei Corporation’s winning entry was a novel production brake pedal bracket for the Mazda MX-5 that was designed using glass fiber reinforced polyamide 66. The new injection molded design required the Asahi Kasei and Mazda team to withdraw from conventional thinking allowing for the removal of unnecessary metal parts to realize a weight savings of 83%.
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Sika Automotive’s winning entry was an ultra lightweight constrained layer material system for structure-borne noise damping. Typical materials for structure-borne noise damping have an area weight of 5 kg/sqm, which was reduced by up to 80% in midsized sedans, such as the BMW i8, Audi Q7, and Daimler A-Class, when using Sika’s new ultra lightweight material system.
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U.S. Steel’s winning entry of Martensitic Advanced High Strength Steels for Low Mass Structural Components, Mart-Ten™ 1500 have recently been introduced to the automotive market with ultimate tensile strengths exceeding 1,500 MPa. U.S. Steel’s advances in continuous annealing technology have enabled the Gigapascal strength to be achieved consistently and repeatedly in mass production to offer more than 10% in weight savings.
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The Future of Lightweighting category was introduced this year to recognize innovative ideas, processes, materials and technologies that have significant potential to support lightweighting initiatives, but have yet to be leveraged on a production vehicle platform. American Axle & Manufacturing was the inaugural award winner in this category for its Quantum Driveline Architecture. Quantum is a unique integration of proven materials and technologies to radically reduce the mass of light duty pickup rear axle systems by 35%, increase transmitted power efficiency, and deliver robust NVH performance.
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“Our judging panel had a very difficult task selecting this year’s award winners among so many high quality entries,” said Richard Yen, Senior Vice President of Global Automotive and Industry Verticals at Altair. “I would like to personally congratulate our award winners and thank all of our finalists and applicants for participating. It’s a rewarding experience each year to witness how simulation-driven design strategies, new materials and advanced manufacturing processes are advancing automotive lightweighting by offering new opportunities to innovate weight efficient products from the start.”
About Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR)
Altair transforms design and decision making by applying simulation, machine learning and optimization throughout product life cycles. Our broad portfolio of simulation technology and patented units-based software licensing model enable Simulation-Driven Innovation for our customers. With more than 2,000 employees, Altair is headquartered in Troy,
Altair Corporate / Americas / Asia Pacific
Biba A. Bedi
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Source: Altair Engineering Inc.