In a move receiving financial support from American soybean growers, Ford hopes to use soy-based polyurethane foam in more than one million vehicles within two years. The move will reduce use of oil-based polyurethanes. Polyurethane foams are used to make seat cushions, seat backs, armrests and head restraints. “We studied from zero to 100 percent, and we went to 12 percent to meet automotive requirements,” says Dr. Deb Mielewski, who has been leading a team focusing on developing new materials for automotive using plant-based products including soy, corn, hemp and other plants.. “We’re studying using more.” The durability and stiffness of the foam is not compromised, says Ford. The average vehicle uses 30 pounds of foam.
Ford has applied for three patents on soy-based polyurethane polyols used in foams: one for high-content soy foam formulations, one for a novel, low-odor process to synthesize polyols and one for the use of soy foam in headrests. Several companies have expressed interest in licensing the technologies. One licensee is John Deere, which first tried soy-based reaction injection molded (rigid) systems about eight years ago. Tier One supplier Lear Corp. has conducted head restraint trials with 40-percent soy foam, measuring how it performs with a variety of production head restraint tools used for Ford vehicles. Bayer is also conducting significant research on the formulation. The project has received funding from the United Soybean Board (USB), a group of 64 farmers/directors that oversees investments in soy-based technologies. The USB has also supported work at Deere.
Ford first used soy-based foams at a 5 percent level in the 2008 Ford Mustang, which was introduced last year. Ford initially said that “Projections estimate that using soy-based foam at high volumes could represent an annual material cost savings of as much as $26 million.” However, Ford now says the switch would be cost neutral. The economics obviously swing as oil and soybean prices fluctuate.
Ford’s use of so-based polyols is a finalist in the SPE Automotive Division Innovation competion. Winners will be announced at a banquet in Detroit Nov. 20.
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
The airframe of Airbus's A350 XWB consists of a bigger proportion of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite structures than any other commercial jet to date: over 53 percent by weight.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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