Not the Delorean Revisited: An Assessment of the Competitive Position of a Stainless Steel Body-in-White 1999-01-3239
Autokinetics is a Rochester Hills MI design firm working with Armco, a supplier of stainless steel. Together, they have developed an architecture that replaces the traditional stamped and spot welded steel unibody with a novel stainless steel spaceframe architecture.
Fabrication
Rollformings
Thin wall castings
Progressive die stampings
Plastic support and exterior panels
Assembly
- Spot, laser, and MIG welding
Relative to conventional steel unibodies, the Autokinetics spaceframe architecture offers a number of projected advantages.
Substantial mass reduction
Increased safety
Improved ride and NVH
More flexible packaging
Lower lifecycle impact
Potential for paint shop elimination
The obvious question that arises, and the one that this paper will answer, is: How does the Autokinetics spaceframe architecture compete on cost?
Citation: Dieffenbach, J., "Not the Delorean Revisited: An Assessment of the Competitive Position of a Stainless Steel Body-in-White," SAE Technical Paper 1999-01-3239, 1999, https://doi.org/10.4271/1999-01-3239. Download Citation
Author(s):
Jeff R. Dieffenbach
Affiliated:
IBIS Associates, Inc.
Pages: 8
Event:
International Body Engineering Conference & Exposition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Steel
Downsizing
Assembling
Welding
Fabrication
Stamping
Architecture
Coatings, colorants, and finishes
Casting
Packaging
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