Saturn Grows Up

Automotive Industries, July, 1999 by Gerry Kobe

Production of the Saturn 2.2L starts at GM's Tonawanda, NY, engine plant. As the L850 spreads to other GM models, the facility will have capacity to produce 500,000 a year by 2002. Opel's Kaiserslauten, Germany, plant will add another 300,000 engines in 2003.

RELATED ARTICLE: A Wooden IP

Peeling back the TPO outer skin on the Saturn L-car's instrument panel reveals a substrate construction that's rarely seen in North American automaking. It's a compression molded woodfiber called Fibrit. Developed in Germany, the material has been used by European automakers for IPs and door inner trim panels, because it's strong, and about 30% lighter than many reinforced engineering plastics. It is also cost-competitive and offers superb sound absorption.

"It's harmonically dead," notes L-series Chief Engineer Grant Carrithers. "With Fibrit, we didn't need to use as many acoustic deadeners, such as mastics." As all-day test drive in the L-cars confirms this. (See p. 14).

And the material, comprised mainly of wood pulp, water and cellulose, easily accommodates smaller airbag modules with seamless doors. That's a major reason it was specified for the L-program.

Fibrit-N is the Saturn IP material produced by Johnson Controls, which molds the substrates at its Battle Creek, Mich., plant, From there the parts go to JCI's New Castle, Del., facility which adds a vacu-formed skin, air ducts, glovebox and kneebolster. It also fits a fiber mesh "scrim" backing on the passenger side that's laser-scored to hinge when the airbag deploys. The IP then moves across the street to a JCl joint-venture plant called Automodular, which fits the cluster, Autoliv airbag module and electronics, and ships in sequence to Saturn's nearby Wilmington assembly plant.

JCI will build 960 IPs per day on two eight-hour shifts, in three build combinations. Saturn's next S-series will also use a Fibrit IR.

--Lindsay Brooke