Engineers at Clemson University are tackling the lightweighting challenge by developing new applications for carbon-fiber composites and other nontraditional materials.
In many automotive parts, a small defect can cause big problems. This explains why Tier 1 suppliers increasingly use machine vision to inspect parts used for steering, air bags, seat belts, brakes, electronic controls and exhaust.
Fastening tools are the workhorses of any assembly operation. Consider a high-volume automotive plant. If a vehicle contains 1,000 threaded fasteners and an assembly line is turning out 250,000 vehicles annually, that’s more than 250 million run-downs each year.
In the early days of air transport, pilots relied on a nationwide network of beacons for night time navigation. A hundred years later, the first generation of autonomous vehicles may also rely on light beams to navigate safely.
DEARBORN, MI—Engineers at Ford Motor Co. are developing car parts made out of graphene, a two-dimensional nanomaterial. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and one of the most conductive materials in the world.
ZUFFENHAUSEN, Germany—Engineers at Porsche are setting up a new type of assembly line at its factory here to build a new type of sports car. The all-electric Taycan will be assembled in a “factory within a factory” as part of the Porsche Production 4.0 initiative.
TIGERTOWN, TX—With new enforcement priorities under the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are taking aim at employers that knowingly hire unauthorized immigrants. The most recent — and largest — bust happened at a trailer manufacturing plant here.
WAYNE, MI—A secret meeting in 2015 between Ford Motor Co. and the UAW led to job security and a sigh of relief among factory workers three years later as they begin manufacturing the Ranger midsize pickup truck at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant here.