Light automotive materials are bringing significant additional benefits to automakers looking to improve fuel economy.
Take Toyota as an example. Takefumi Shiga, general manager of the company's No. 1 body division in Japan, said that Toyota found that using high-strength steel to reduce the weight of the car actually reduced the construction cost of the production line.
This additional benefit will help reduce the cost burden of using costly lightweight materials such as aluminum, high strength steel and carbon fiber.
Shiga told the audience at the 2014 management seminar in Traverse City that Toyota also found that by using carbon fiber parts, materials can be mixed on the same welding line without the need to operate the welding line separately.
The perfection of lightweight materials also allows Toyota to use advanced laser spiral welding to bond components. According to Shiga, laser spiral welding can achieve a speed of half a second per point, which is significantly shorter than the 2 and 3 seconds of conventional welding. Laser spiral welding can also produce spot weldments.
FranzStorkenmaier, BMW's director of lightweight construction and automotive weight reduction, said the company's use of carbon fiber in key parts of the new i3 electric vehicle has added additional benefits in crash repair.
The damaged part of the carbon fiber body can be cut and repaired separately, and the new carbon fiber body part can be bonded to its original position.
The i3 electric vehicle uses a large number of carbon fiber components, including the frame, bumper, rear seat basin, propeller shaft and multiple chassis and engine compartment components.
Storkenmaier said the breakthrough in the i3 structure opened the door for other vehicles that BMW designed and built in the same way.
In addition, the innovation of the i3 body structure has enabled BMW to install a new coating line at its assembly plant in Leipzig, Germany, which consumes half the energy of a traditional steel body coating line and consumes 70% less water.
When talking about the application of carbon fiber, Storkenmaier said: "This is a very different structure. This is a huge breakthrough in material design."
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