Material Qualification in the Automotive Industry
This whitepaper explains the material qualification process in the automotive industry and explores opportunities for process improvements.
Assessing the Fleet-wide Material Technology and Costs to Lightweight Vehicles
This study provides insight to the technology and cost to reduce vehicle weight for the U.S. fleet of light-duty vehicles
Building Capacity and Capability in the Bio-based Materials Manufacturing Sector
This research, part of the Make it in America Challenge, explores pathways toward building capacity and capability in automotive use of manufactured biomaterials.
Mixed Materials Solutions: Alternative Materials for Door Assemblies
Collaboration demonstrates up to 65% weight savings compared to baseline design. The Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM) reports on a co-development demonstration project focused on mixed-material lightweighting solutions. Collaborative contributions of more than twenty supplier companies offer a dozen integrated solutions deploying a mix of materials and technologies allowing weight reduction compared to a baseline design
Identifying Real World Barriers to Implementing Lightweighting Technologies and Challenges in Estimating the Increase in Costs
Automakers have made great strides in lightweighting vehicles as a means to help achieve greater fuel efficiency. However, vehicle manufacturers face real-world challenges in finding cost-effective ways to continue implementing further mass reduction solutions needed...Assessing the Cost & Benefit of Effective Lightweighting Technologies
This report examines why lightweighting may be a viable solution and examines the cost of lightweight automotive closures. This research analyzes the direct manufacturing cost by modeling the manufacturing processes of the door-in-white subsystem, including the inner...Copper in End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling
The following report describes the current state of the art in vehicle recycling by focusing on operations that affect the recycling of copper. For this purpose, selected dismantlers and shredding companies were visited and representatives from industry organizations were interviewed. Selected OEMs have also been interviewed to better understand the impact of regulations on their vehicle design and on their research focus.
Key Factors that Enable Product Development: An Investigation of Creating “Cool” Products
The Center for Automotive Research has undertaken the CAR-Microsoft Program on Automotive Industry Practices. The program is a four-year research effort consisting of indepth, focused interviews with industry participants on subjects of importance to all industry stakeholders. The intent of this paper is to investigate how different companies have adapted their product development processes to the changing competitive climate and how they utilize new technologies (e.g., weblogs, internet chat rooms, and other such digital communications) to transform their vision into products. The focus is not on the tools or the specific strategies, but rather on the information channels product design teams use for inspiration and understanding the market and on how the product design teams work together to create “cool” products.
This study was sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.