Automotive Engineering - September 2022 - 12

TECHNOLOGY REPORT
" shows excellent STL [sound transmission
loss] values. " APL treatment requires
early design involvement, Lin
added, and is not as flexible for lastminute
coverage changes.
Runner-up: Bionic Mesh Design
GmbH uses tools from the entertainment
industry to redefine lightweight
design for mass casting and forging
through the direct transformation of
topology in CAD models and an emphasis
on production processes. By requiring
90% less design time than standard
solid modeling processes, Bionic
Mesh Design can help compress the
product development cycle for automotive
OEMs and suppliers.
Runner-up: Human Horizons has inLightweighting
Enabling Technology: Shiloh Industries
provides Acoustic Patch Laminate for targeted noise control
on General Motors vehicles.
corporated high pressure die casting
(HPDC) and heat-free treatment material
into the manufacturing of a rear cabin,
resulting in up to 20% weight reduction.
The HPDC rear cabin has integrated 40
parts of the rear floor into a single part,
reducing manufacturing and mold development
time by one-third.
Module Lightweighting: 2022 Toyota Tundra's second-row seat structure replaced more than 60
stamped and welded steel pieces with four composite parts.
Runner-up: Nucor Corp. has introduced
what it claims is the world's first net-zero
carbon steel produced at scale, called
Econiq. Nucor says it is pioneering the
reduction of a vehicle's carbon footprint
without changing the design or grade
selection. Currently available to automotive
companies, Econiq has a " very high
percentage " of recycled content.
Lightweighting Enabling
Technology
Shiloh Industries provides Acoustic
Patch Laminate (APL) components using
targeted noise control for certain
General Motors vehicles. Called
12 September 2022
ShilohCore, the patented laminate provides
comparable NVH performance as
a fully laminated vehicle material but
can reduce the mass of damping treatments
by 45% - by up to 2 kg (4.4 lb)
per vehicle - lower interior noise by
over 2 dB and cut total cost by 15-20%,
according to Steve Lin, director of engineering
for Shiloh.
" With a patch laminate, for some of
the high frequencies we can go up over
10 dB noise reductions, " Lin said during
an MBS session. He noted that BEV
transmission gear noise and electric
whine noise are prevalent from 1,000 to
5,000 Hz, a range in which ShilohCore
Module Lightweighting
Toyota engineers, with help from BASF
Corp. and L&L Products, replaced more
than 60 stamped and welded steel
pieces with only four composite parts in
the 2022 Toyota Tundra's second-row
seat structure. This achievement results
from the industry's first use of combining
polyurethane pultrusion to add localized
stiffness and strength where
needed, in conjunction with an injection-molded
engineered plastic. These
changes in production resulted in 20%
mass reductions and 20% cost savings
compared to previous generations' steel
seat structure, Vik Bhatia, group manager,
engineering design chassis at
Toyota Motor NA, said at MBS.
Runner-up: Bocar Group and Toyota
co-developed a " first of its kind " visual
class-A exterior structural die-cast application,
for the 2022 Tundra's rear end
post. Integrating multiple steel components
into a single aluminum casting
results in mass savings of 4.4 kg (9.7 lb)
per vehicle - the equivalent to saving
78.9 kg (173.9 lb) of CO2 emissions per
vehicle per year.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
FROM TOP: SHILOH INDUSTRIES; TOYOTA

Automotive Engineering - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - September 2022