Automotive Spaceframes
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Automotive Spaceframes
Aluminum usage in automobiles and light trucks has been climbing steadily. Even
more important, auto manufacturers are beginning to see aluminum the way
aircraft manufacturers do - as the basic structural material for their vehicles.
Increasingly, in the case of carmakers, that thinking begins with an aluminum
body structure such as the spaceframe. It's a new and potentially powerful
trend. As recently as 1990, there were no aluminum-structured passenger cars in
production anywhere in the world. The closest thing was the HMMV (Hummer), at
that time strictly a military vehicle. As of 1997, there were seven
aluminum-structured passenger cars in production. For three of them - Audi A8,
Plymouth Prowler, and GM EV-1 - Alcoa has been the principal partner in
designing, engineering and manufacturing aluminum components, subassemblies, and
- in the case of the Prowler - the frame itself. And that's just the beginning.
A concept car with a modular spaceframe in technology reviews held for Ford and
Chrysler, Alcoa unveiled a vehicle concept embodying ideas for future cars and
light trucks. The design is based on a spaceframe structure comparable to those
Alcoa has helped to develop for the Audi A8 and Plymouth Prowler. But in the
concept vehicle, the spaceframe is modular, a step toward using such structures
in a broad range of future vehicles. By changing modules, a carmaker could
produce a sedan, a sport utility vehicle, and a pickup truck, all from a single
production platform. New programs with Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Alcoa is
producing the front energy management structure for the new Mercedes-Benz
A-class car (above) now selling in Europe. This 11-piece structure was designed
by Alcoa and is robotically assembled at Alcoa's plant in Soest, Germany.
Production volume is expected to reach 1,000 units per day. For Chrysler, an
aluminum rear crossmember designed and manufactured by Alcoa improves the
handling and noise-vibration-harshness performance of the all-new 1998 Dodge
Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde as well as the 1999 Chrysler LHS and 300M models.
AAS will manufacture 270,000 units per year at its Northwood, Ohio plant.
Something new around the windshield. A key advance incorporated in the 1997
Corvette is a first-of-its-kind windshield surround developed in a design and
engineering collaboration of General Motors and Alcoa. An effective combination
of aluminum cast and extruded products makes this an extremely stiff structure,
h...
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