Automotive Design & Production

View more issues: Feb 2004, March 2004, May 2004

Articles in April 2004 issue of Automotive Design & Production

• Taking a leap
• The great retro debate: when is a design considered "retro" and when is it a homage to a company's heritage? That's a question even the world's top automotive designers have trouble answering
  by Christopher A. Sawyer
• Better bearings
• PT Cruiser convertible: designing, engineering & making the drop-top
  by Gary S. Vasilash
• For honing teeth
• Inside edition: looking inside 10 interesting vehicles. Some production. Some concepts. All with interesting interiors
  by Gary S. Vasilash
• Tech engagement
  by Gary S. Vasilash
• Go blue
• De-commoditizing the robot: when your products are considered to be fairly fungible with those of your competitors, you can make incremental improvements and hope they are sufficient or you can take a bigger risk and try to make a big difference. The latt
  by Gary S. Vasilash
• Don't fall for "just another pretty face"
  by Ted Pollock
• Laser bits
• Laser system is a bright idea for faster product development: by using a laser scanning system mounted on the arm of a portable CMM and some clever algorithms that provide automatic feature extraction, vehicle manufacturers can further accelerate their ti
  by Gary S. Vasilash
• The smart way of building cars
  by William Kimberley
• Firstek Ltd
• Lotus bonds with aluminum
  by Kermit Whitfield
• China: a balanced viewpoint
  by Kim Korth
• The Rofin EasyMark
• Match analysis with materials: material characteristics and differences are sufficiently disparate so that those designers and engineers who are looking for tools to model parts before they're produced ought to consider those that are specific to the requ
  by Lawrence S. Gould
• Multi-tasking gage
• Learning to see
• Extending die life
• Saving Lincoln: "in its heyday, every Lincoln had 12 cylinders. Today, all should have 10, and the style to match. It's something the original Edsel Ford would have understood."
  by Christopher A. Sawyer
• Getting smart about sealant application
• Manifold benefits
• Volvo S40: all of the Volvo virtues in a smaller package
  by Kermit Whitfield
• Part marking machine
• Engineering the LX; Chrysler Group builds a quintessentially American car: a large, rear-wheel-drive car with just a touch of Mercedes
  by Christopher A. Sawyer