The Future of Mobility and Shifting Manufacturing Requirements

Consider just about any car manufactured in the history of the automobile and its body would most certainly be stamped sheet metal, which would most often mean a magnet would stick to it. That body would be welded construction to comprise its Body-in-White onto which would be assembled more steel chassis components, a cast engine block & transmission, and a range of non-metal trim.

Manufacturing processes were traditionally defined, in many cases, by what and where they were in the traditional automotive architecture—body manufacturing engineers knew their products were stamped and welded, powertrain engineers knew casting, and trim was the domain of plastics and composites.

However, with the fundamental changes coming to the auto industry with electrified propulsion we are seeing more aggressive goals for engineering lighter and stronger automotive bodies. This lifts some of the conventional limitations, for combustion powered autobody piece costs, to new heights in order to reach the additional mass reduction enabled by Die Cast alloys and Composites structures within the automotive body.

In this webinar we will introduce the main challenges in validating the manufacturing of these lightweight engineered automotive bodies and how to address them. Virtual “smart manufacturing” is key in identifying the right materials and processes and ultimately achieving the performance requirements for the next generation of automotive and mobility options.

The immediate future of mobility is already showing signs of this transformation, but how ready are we all to adjust to this “new norm”?