THREE DAYS ON HOW TO COST-EFFECTIVELY JOIN, FORM AND DESIGN COMPOSITES AND
LIGHTWEIGHT METALS INTO MULTI-MATERIAL VEHICLE ARCHITECTURES
N E X T G E N E R AT I O N M U LT I - M AT E R I A L J O I N I N G , F O R M I N G A N D D E S I G N C O N G R E S S F O R L I G H T W E I G H T V E H I C L E S
18-20 August 2015 | Detroit | MICHIGAN
PRE-CONFERENCE
INTERVIEW:
GREGORY E. PETERSON
Senior Technical Specialist
WHAT ROLE DOES THE
COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN
PHILOSOPHY PLAY IN AN
OVERALL LIGHTWEIGHTING
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
IN LOTUS AND WHAT IS ITS
FUTURE POTENTIAL?
LOTUS ENGINEERING
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS BEING
THE PRIMARY BARRIERS TO
THE WIDER APPLICATION OF
LIGHTWEIGHT MATERIALS IN
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY AT
THE MOMENT?
WHAT MATERIALS/
TECHNOLOGIES DO YOU SEE
HAVING THE MOST POTENTIAL
WITH ENABLING HIGH VOLUME
LIGHTWEIGHT VEHICLE
PRODUCTION?
The primary barriers that I see are
cost, infrastructure and experience
with the specific materials. The
increased cost for lightweight
materials can be significantly offset
by utilizing alternative manufacturing
and joining methods. These ancillary
processes can contribute to reduced
parts count, improved vehicle
structure and require less material.
Lotus has been producing cars with
aluminum riv-bonded chassis for
several decades, including the new
Evora 400 engineered for the North
American market. Lotus cars employ
a high level of extruded components;
the result is significant tooling
savings due to the high level of
component integration into a single
die as well as the low cost of the tool
itself. I think structural adhesives
will play an increasingly important
role in assembling lightweight
structures. They provide 100% joint
bonding, do not degrade the parent
material and can be used to join
dissimilar materials making them
a very effective solution for joining
multi-material structures. I also think
low energy joining processes such
as Friction Spot Joining can play an
important role in joining non-ferrous
materials economically. The use
of technologies that utilize air to
replace denser materials will become
more widespread and contribute
to reducing the cost of lightweight
vehicles. Active noise control systems
can replace very dense mastic
materials using the vehicle’s audio
system. Replacing expensive plastic
material with co-injected air results
in less expensive, lighter parts that
require less energy to mold. I think
ablation casting has the potential
to reduce the weight of aluminum
wheels and structural components,
providing forged properties using
inexpensive sand castings. Carbon
fiber pultrusions have the potential
to replace key BIW structural
elements such as rockers and cross
car beams saving substantial weight
while greatly reducing tooling
costs. Based on our work in the
aerospace industry, I strongly believe
that carbon fiber based structural
instrument panels can replace
conventional IPs and their complex
internal structure as well as the cross
car beam connecting the lower A
pillars. This could be a “Customer
Delight” feature where the carbon
fiber isn’t just an expensive add on
trim option but a standard, complete
instrument panel with local soft trim.
Lotus uses an holistic, total vehicle
approach to design an automobile.
This process is an essential and critical
element of lightweight design and
starts at program kick-off. It means
that all components are assessed
simultaneously for their mass, cost
and performance requirements. It
also includes a review of all materials
(Lotus uses steel in every vehicle) and
processes. The result is a systematic
analysis of the contribution of every
system and sub-system to the overall
vehicle objectives. It means that
one system may have to get heavier
and more expensive to make the
total vehicle lighter and less costly.
Reducing individual system mass
and cost without considering the
total vehicle impact can potentially
make the vehicle heavier and more
expensive. At the very least, it is much
less efficient to reduce system mass
on a component by component basis
rather than utilizing a total vehicle
approach. The Lotus process results in
lightweight, cost effective and robust
designs; we will continue to utilize this
philosophy on every new vehicle.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING
TO CARRY OUT OF YOUR
PARTICIPATION AT GALM US
THIS YEAR?
I am looking forward to seeing
innovative new technologies and
design approaches being developed
to support the urgent need for
engineering lightweight, cost
effective vehicles.
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