Ford's top-selling F-150 pickup has sported an aluminum hood—the most popular automotive body panel application for the material—for ten years. Now, the steel industry wants to take it back. "With advances in medium- and high-strength steels, we can now offer at least the same level of hood performance and take customers closer to their ultimate mass-reduction goal for a significantly lower cost," says Ron Krupitzer, Senior Director of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). "If you factor in manufacturing costs, an aluminum hood could easily cost three to five times as much as a steel hood." At the most basic level, the two primary functions of a hood are to keep the rain off the engine and look good, which has made this large body panel an easy target for automakers looking to get into a lower inertial weight class in order to meet overall Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) requirements. In fact, automakers frequently switch back and forth between aluminum and steel hoods, depending on whether the goal of the month is to reduce weight or cost. But the technical requirements for the hood are not zero, says Kruptizer, and in fact he says that hood performance is perceived now to be more critical as safety becomes an overpowering design requirement for automakers—something he says could tip the scales in favor of steel. He points to new pedestrian injury requirements being driven by the Europeans, as well as new crash rollover and side impact tests, which are impacting the whole architecture of the front of the car and likely to affect hood design. To help educate auto engineers on the benefits of medium- and high-strength steels in hood applications and to better understand the design criteria—with the ultimate goal presumably to achieve more design wins—the AISI commissioned a major benchmarking study comparing mass, structural performance, surface characteristics, and dent resistance capabilities, of aluminum and steel hood designs. The results of that study will be presented at the SAE World Congress in Detroit in March. The AISI also plans to release application guidelines for advanced high-strength steels to the auto industry in 2004.
By refining topologies and using new fluid technology, Moog's new peak sine drive controller increases available power without increasing controller volume.
Lantronix Inc. has expanded its line of controllers for sensor networks with the release of a rugged controller that improves management of automation systems used in a number of industries, including manufacturing, oil and gas, and chemicals.
Inspired by the hooks a parasitic worm uses to penetrate its host's intestines, the Karp Lab has invented a flexible adhesive patch covered with microneedles that adheres well to wet, soft tissues, but doesn't cause damage when removed.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
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 ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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