Strategies and future developments in the manufacturing process of light-weight car bodies

摘要

Continuing pressure to meet fuel economy and safety requirements, improve quality and minimize cost has resulted in the development of new car concept. The keyword for this condition is called light-weight construction. New steel and aluminum products have been applied to inner and outer panels of car bodies, resulting in significant weight reductions in high volume vehicles. The application of these materials is determined on the one hand by the production volume and thus by the manufacturing technologies already existing, on the other hand by the materials price. The use of different manufacturing processes in small lot productions is higher than in large scale productions (e.g. Tubular hydroforming, Hydro-mechanical deep drawing, ...). For this reason the automobile industry tries to integrate these alternative methods in high volume productions. The influence of production lot sizes on the choice of materials and production technologies is a substantial criterion of light-weight construction concepts.