Exploring the: Automotive Materials Zone
|
Sort by: |
- Genchi-Genbutsu and Creating the Toyota 4Runner
- With the proliferation of SUVs on the market right now, the folks at Toyota knew that there was a big challenge in developing the new 4Runner. So Toyota engineers applied a methodology that got them thinking about what really needed to get done.
Columns Published: 10/1/2002
- Plastic's Possible Future
- From engineering and product perspectives, the characteristics of plastics for automotive applications that Dr. Michael M. Fisher, director, Technology, American Plastics Council (APC; Arlington, VA), cites are interesting and impressive
Columns Published: 10/1/2002
- Cool Under Pressure
- Federal-Mogul's all-steel piston is designed for the increased heat and pressure new heavy duty diesel engines will be generating. Poised to replace aluminum units, it eventually may find its way into passenger vehicles.
Columns Published: 9/1/2002
- Repelling Sound, Surf, Sand and Stains
- Making acoustic panels for vehicles is very similar to stamping steel. Instead of pounding out sheet metal floor pans, exterior panels or the like, CTA's stamping experts form fiberglass, polyester, and resin into semi-rigid acoustic pieces, four pi...
Columns Published: 8/1/2002
- Less Weight, More Quiet
- Customers want quieter vehicles. They also want cars and trucks that have better fuel economy. Until now, the two goals were mutually exclusive because making a vehicle quieter meant adding more layers of heavy insulating materials.
Columns Published: 7/1/2002
- The Glass-Electronics Connection
- Although window glass and electronics might not be immediately associated with one another, Larry J. Costa of Costa Technologies (Mishawaka, IN) observes that the association of one to the other—especially with regard to the backlight (i.e., the rea...
Columns Published: 6/1/2002
- Glassy-eyed Optimists or Material Geniuses?
- In the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Mr.
Columns Published: 5/1/2002
- Inside, Under, Elsewhere & Otherwise
- Making the SwitchThe reliability of driver’s side door switches for minivans—the activation of which cause the sliding doors to operate—is said to be improved through the use of an internally lubricated glass-filled nylon 6/6 alloy...
Columns Published: 2/1/2002
- Material Driving Powertrain Production: Compacted Graphite Iron
- When asked about the biggest development related to powertrain machining, Mark Tomlinson, vice president of Technology Integration, Lamb Technicon (Warren, MI), proffers an unusual answer.
Columns Published: 1/1/2002
- Someday...Aluminum
- .
Columns Published: 12/1/2001