Category Archive: Uncategorized
Electronics play a crucial role in electric vehicles (EVs). In 2000 automobile electronics were responsible for 18 percent of the cost of a car. Twenty years later, electronics accounted for 40 percent of a car’s cost. The use of electronics will continue to meet fuel efficiency, safety regulations, and consumer standards. However, while the use of electronics will grow, manufacturers must ensure their parts’ quality, safety, and their bottom line’s integrity.
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The increased use of turbochargers has become an important trend in car manufacturing. This trend has been driven by requirements to design smaller, more powerful engines that also reduce fuel consumption.
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Recent decades have seen a surge in the use of aluminum castings in car manufacturing. Aluminum has been a critical material in car manufacturing since the beginning. The first sports car featuring an aluminum body was unveiled at the Berlin International Motor Show in 1899. Carl Benz developed the first engine with aluminum parts two years later. Since then, aluminum has become the leading material used in various components and car models. Aluminum use now ranges from mass-market to luxury vehicles.
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Modern vehicles contain hundreds of electric control units (ECUs). These control functions that range from operation of the engine to keyless entry. An ECU receives input from the vehicle then communicates with an actuator to perform a specific action. For example, a door lock ECU would activate an actuator to unlock or lock a door. OEMs and manufacturers are introducing more ECUs into vehicles to meet demands in features and performance.
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As manufacturing equipment ages, the maintenance and repair (MRO) of the equipment increases while the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) decreases. Given this, companies must decide while bidding on new projects: “Use the aged equipment and invest in MRO while accepting a lower OEE” or “Invest in new equipment using the latest technology and generate a higher OEE.”
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As consumer demands evolve, it’s imperative for companies to become environmentally conscious. As a result, OEMs and manufacturers who use aluminum die castings have adapted quickly, and sustainable manufacturing practices have become increasingly common.
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Manufacturers are constantly faced with either scrapping castings that leak or sealing the castings through vacuum impregnation. Some may perceive vacuum impregnation as a non-value added cost and assume it is less expensive to scrap die castings that leak. In this simplified yet real-world example, we will review the costs of die casting scrap compared to vacuum impregnation.
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The use of electronics in automobiles has made cars faster, safer, and more reliable. Electronics have become so prevalent that they’re practically a commodity in the same way that aluminum and steel are. As this trend continues, manufacturers need solutions that address the leak paths that occur naturally in the manufacture of these components.
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The benefits in owning and operating equipment vs. outsourcing are found in the savings of logistics, quality, and part costs. These savings serve to increase a company’s profitability. This reality holds true for vacuum impregnation equipment. But with many projects and programs competing for a limited amount of capital expenditure dollars, owning vacuum impregnation equipment can seem out of reach. Therefore, many companies default to outsourcing their vacuum impregnation requirements.
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A major benefit to manufacturing with powder metal is that parts are made to near net shape. Often, machining is thus only a secondary operation for improving shape precision and surface quality.
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