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Automotive Industries, August, 2001 by Gerry Kobe
"The growth in Europe is fueled by space frame technology," says Tim Werding, general manager for Schuler Hydroforming Inc. "For example, the Audi A2 is an extruded aluminum space frame that is calibrated and hole punched in the hydroforming process. Space frame is a growing trend in Europe that will continue."
Werding says the growth among U.S. manufacturers has been in frame rails and truck frames, but as uses expand into more engine cradles, A-pillars, IP support beams, door frames and exhaust parts, the U.S. market will take on the dramatic growth patterns now seen in Europe.
Pushing the technology even further is a recent development that injects aluminum foam inside a hydroformed tube to give it outstanding crush characteristics.
"Think of it in the same way as a human bone," says Schuler engineering manager Klaus Hertell. "There is a hard outer surface with a sponge-like material inside giving strength, but at low mass. We can actually make the walls of the hydroformed part thinner, but with the foam inside it is stiffer, has better crush and is still lighter."
Also in development are laser welded tubes, which are the counterparts to laser welded blanks. Cost is high at the moment, but once developed it will allow metal thickness to be put only where it F is needed, lowering the weight of hydroformed parts even further.
Another aspect of the technology is sheet hydroforming, which has existed for years but is gaining renewed interest for niche vehicles. Sheet hydroforming is similar to conventional stamping, but the press uses a water basin as the female side of the die. The blank comes into a holder above the basin and the male half of the die comes down and forms the part against the water pressure.
Although sheet hydroforming has a relatively slow cycle time of 40 to 60 seconds per panel, it does produce excellent quality parts in a single press stroke. It is capable of deep draws without tearing and works equally well with aluminum or steel. Each press can support about 10,000 units per year, and because it requires only a half of a die set per panel, investment cost is low and ideal for low volume production.
DIGITAL PLANT
A digital plant is the ultimate extension of e-manufacturing, and Delphi Automotive Systems is the first to build what will prove to be a model for digital plants of the future. The programmers at the new Packard Electric injection molding facility in Cortland, Ohio, have created an electronic representation of everything in the facility and placed it under control of a central computer.
The 145,000-square-foot plant will produce more than one billion electrical components annually. There are 120 automated molding machines, but just 18 employees on the plant floor per shift.
Delphi's digital plant digitizes everything, including machines, tools, material, orders -- even the paths that the AGVs follow. Each then becomes a "virtual object." A central computer monitors every object in the plant, knows the correct process for making every part and "demands" that everything is double checked, performed in the correct order and that no steps are skipped. Everything in the plant answers to the system.
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