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Lightweight vehicle modules made by ElringKlingerSimply delightfulBy Peter Renz, Communication, Elring Klinger AG

The main challenges facing the automotive industry – both car makers and their suppliers – have been clear for some time, with a strong focus on the need to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. In response to ever stricter regulation, companies have no choice but to keep innovating and coming up with new ideas. With its portfolio of both conventional and ground-breaking product solutions based on high-performance, cutting-edge technology, ElringKlinger is helping to shape the future of mobility.

Lightweight

ElringKlinger stands to benefit tremen-dously from the expertise of the Hummel Group, a leading specialist mold and tool manufacturer in the field of lightweight construction that now forms an integral part of the ElringKlinger Group. In col-laboration with a German car maker, the company has developed innovative poly-mer hybrid components for the vehicle cockpit and front end. These solutions are based on a new hydroform hybrid technology that has allowed ElringKlinger to break into the lightweight engineer-ing market for vehicle body and chassis components.

The technology involves two innovative production methods – hydroforming and injection molding. First of all, a robot inserts an extruded, thin-walled aluminum tube into a mold. After the two halves of the mold are closed, the interior of the tube is filled with a liquid at high pressure. This causes it to assume the desired shape. The injection-molding process then starts in the same mold cavity.

Molten plastic is injected into the mold at high temperature and under high pres-sure. It solidifies in the cavity between the mold and the reshaped tube. The hybrid part is then removed by a robot and transferred to the downstream pro-cessing stage.

Revenue boosted by cockpit and front-end components

Lightweight components such as the cockpit cross-car beam, the front-end carrier and the front-end adapter deliver a significant reduction in overall vehicle weight compared with metal components.

As well as reducing the volume of input materials, the innovative combination of polymer and metal in these structural components also ensures greater dimen-sional and geometrical accuracy with minimal tolerances and increased bend-ing and dent resistance in the event of a crash. At present, production is located at ElringKlinger’s factories in China and Canada. The company anticipates a sub-stantial boost in revenue from the newly developed components.

Tougher rules force automotive industry to act

If we go back some years, no one could have anticipated the radical changes we are seeing now – changes that are being driven primarily by government policy and legislation. By 2021, vehicle CO2 emissions in the European Union will have to fall gradually to a maximum of 95 grams per kilometer. Asia and North America are also tightening up their own regulations.

Metal giving way to plastic

Until recently, car mak-ers tended to prioritize vehicle performance

over weight and simply used metal components wherever nec-essary. Nowadays, with the trend towards smaller engines, plastics are being used wherever they can meet the very high specifications placed on vehicle compo-nents.

ElringKlinger’s lightweight construction expertise is not limited to its newly devel-oped polymer hybrid components for the vehicle cockpit and front end. Since the Im

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hybrid technology and can act as a mount for the intercooler, the headlight module, windscreen washer tank, horn, the automatic distance detec-tion radar or the air intake. It also supports the hood. In order to reduce weight, ElringKlinger uses a combination of injection-molded polymer, sheet metal and hydroformed metal tubes.

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beginning of 2012, the company has been making a range of weight-saving products at its new lightweight plastics factory in Dettingen/Erms.

Polyamide oil pans are lighter and qui-eter than their aluminum or thermoset predecessors, and they can also be equipped with numerous functions. In turn, that saves on production costs and

makes them a valuable multi-purpose addition in terms of truck design. With weight savings of between 30 and 50 percent, the benefits of this new prod-uct development from ElringKlinger are clear.

Thanks to a new design and injection molding process, ElringKlinger’s plas-tic cam cover modules are now even

lighter. The company’s developers have integrated a heat shield, a turbocharger vacuum accumulator and a pioneering oil trap specially designed for the higher peak temperatures and pressures found in smaller, turbocharged engines.

Another eye-catching product from ElringKlinger is a car wheel rim made of plastic that can be produced in large series and offers a weight saving of three kilograms per wheel compared to con-ventional aluminum rims.

Looking ahead, the main focus of Elring-Klinger’s engine development work will remain on components that not only save weight but also improve perfor-mance. The company will also continue to prioritize the development of prod-ucts that increase driving comfort, sig-nificantly reduce noise levels and have a lower impact on the environment. ElringKlinger supplies installation-ready modules for the engine compartment that combine a plastic housing, seal-ing system, fastening technology and additional functions. Lightweight engi-neering is shaping the future of the automotive world, and ElringKlinger is in an outstanding position to help drive that change. n

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ElringKlinger’s concept car high-lights the company’s breadth of expertise – here for example in the form of a lightweight cockpit cross-car beam.

Weight-saving components designed to cut CO2: lightweight cam covers and oil pans rolling off the assembly line in Dettingen/Erms.