U.S. automakers are wrestling with the challenge of reducing vehicle weight to meet the 2025 CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) mandate, which requires new cars and trucks to achieve 55 miles per gallon. Meeting that challenge will require the latest advances in materials and fastening methods.

The need to reduce vehicle weight has spawned myriad new technologies for assembling aluminum, high-strength steel and other materials. These new technologies include self-piercing rivets, flow-drilling screws and friction-stir spot welding.

NEW HUDSON, MI—Henrob Group has opened a new 125,000-square-foot factory here to make self-piercing rivets.

Rivets, screws and other joining processes play a key role behind the new F-150.

DEARBORN, MI—Since May 2013, more than 8,000 skilled trades and production workers at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant and Kansas City Assembly Plant have undergone an intensive training program to support production of the new F-150 pickup.