INTEREST IN WELDED ALUMINUM AUTOMOBILES GATHERS MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE

摘要

Last September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Winfried Burgert, head of car body development, the Volkswagen/Audi Group, in discussing the potential for aluminum in automobile bodies (Ref. 1), said, "It may take 25 years to get around to the Golf, produced at a rate of around seven hundred thousand units a year, but a takeover of car body production by aluminium is almost inevitable. The beauty of the aluminium space frame car is that production process costs are so low, much lower than for steel, and aluminium allows greater flexibility in the overall design and production process." According to Dr. Burgert, a second Volkswagen/Audi group model to be produced with an aluminum body at nearly 100,000 units a year will join VW's A8 luxury car within the next five years. The A8 has a gas metal arc (GMA) welded space frame skeleton of extruded and cast aluminum clad with adhesive-bonded and riveted outer panels. The annual production rate of the A8 is about 16,000 units.