Technical Paper
IMPACT Phase II - Study to Remove 25% of the Weight from a Pick-up Truck
2007-04-16
2007-01-1727
This paper describes a joint project between Ford, the American Iron & Steel Institute, the University of Louisville, and the U. S. Army to reduce the weight of a full size pick-up truck by 25%, while keeping incremental costs to a minimum. Several alternate technologies were evaluated for each system, subsystem, and component of the vehicle and based on analysis of all combinations of these technologies, the solution which yielded the best overall cost and weight balance, while meeting all of the functional requirements, was selected. The major focus of the project was to develop new steel architectures and materials, since this would assure the maintenance of the lowest possible cost, though the study was not restricted to steel alone. The project was successful in meeting all of its targets, and a vehicle was built to demonstrate the feasibility of the various concepts.