Developing the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell
Honda is no stranger to putting fuel cell vehicles on the U.S. roads. The world’s first lease of a fuel cell vehicle to a family happened in California with a model year 2005 FCX. It was followed by the 2008 FCX Clarity. And now the company is producing the 2017 Clarity Fuel Cell. Dimensionally, the […]
Dassault Systèmes Goes to the Cloud
Related: Digital Domain Related Suppliers Dassault Systemes “You don’t learn with static products. You learn from experience,†says Bernard Charles, member of the board, president, and CEO of Dassault Systèmes (3ds.com). His comment neatly encapsulates the direction Dassault Systèmes is taking with its stable of software. GO EXPERIENCE “The first time I came to Detroit,†says Olivier […]
Composites Under the Car
ZF developed this suspension strut and knuckle module prototype with fiber-reinforced plastic material, which weighs 40% less than the conventional steel parts. Related: Automotive LIghtweighting Automotive Materials Related Suppliers ZF Group Weight savings of 50 to 60% can be achieved in chassis components by using composite materials instead of conventional metals. This bold claim comes […]
Connected Cars to Create $53 Billion Market in 5 Years
Related: AutoBeat Group Posted: June 14, 2013 at 2:04 am Equipping cars with the ability to communicate with each other and their surroundings will create a €40 billion ($53 billion) global market by 2018, predicts the GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Assn.), a global trade group for mobile communications providers. By 2025 most new cars will […]
Changing the Dominant Design
Related: Automotive Design There is a concept known as “dominant design,” which has it that there is a standard—de facto if not de jure—that people within a given industry follow. For example, consider PCs. No matter what form factor the computer takes (desktop, notebook, subnotebook), no matter whether it has as innovative a shape and […]
Bosch on Electronics
Producing electric motors for electric vehicles. Bosch and Daimler have established a joint venture to manufacture the traction motors. Both electric vehicles and hybrids require batteries. Bosch and Samsung SDI are working together through a joint venture to produce lithium-ion batteries. Previous Next Related: Automotive Electronics Related Suppliers Bosch Rexroth Corp. The Bosch Automotive Electronics […]
Bose Goes Beyond Sound
The Bose Ride system installed in a demonstration vehicle. Sensors measure road vibrations, then that information is used to calculate countermeasures to the jolts, bumps and other changes that are put into effect by electromagnetic actuators. The original Bose Ride system, which has been deployed in heavy-duty trucks since 2010, is a single-axis system: up […]
Building by Bonding: BMW, the i3 and Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber sheets are molded into parts inside the press shop at BMW Plant Leipzig, Germany. Carbon fiber for the i3 is manufactured in Moses Lake, WA, at a BMW-SGL joint venture production facility. Robots place a specially developed adhesive to join parts of the BMW i3’s carbon fiber reinforced plastic body. The BMW i3 […]
Better Assembly Through Software
CETOL 6s tolerance analysis software creates assembly models that show the effect changes in part tolerances can have on the assembly. The software can output various analysis reports, such as (the pop-ups from left to right) system constraints, sensitivity Pareto, and final results measurements. Delmia ergonomics software simulates various worker tasks, such as picking up […]
Better Diesel Pistons
Although the two photomicrographs seem to be showing two different materials, the diesel piston is all the same aluminum alloy. The area where there are smaller particles is the one that has undergone remelting then fast cooling, which results in the significantly smaller silicon particle size. This contributes to a longer piston life, as the […]
