Opportunities for lightweighting within the commercial vehicle (CV) market is set to increase as increasingly stringent industry regulations for fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions put pressure on truck manufacturers.
Headquartered in Michigan, Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) develops lightweight composite solutions for automotive applications, with locations across the US, Mexico, France and China. Lightweight composites offer a high strength-to-weight ratio, can boost fuel efficiency and are corrosion resistant. Frank Macher, Chairman and Chief Executive of CSP, spoke to Automotive World about the role that lightweighting will play for CVs in future.
A significant factor
Macher believes that in the past, lightweighting has not played a key role in CV development, but he anticipates its importance will start to grow: “Lightweighting will become a significant factor as CVs are becoming increasingly regulated for emissions and economy. One of the easiest ways to meet these needs is to lightweight the vehicle itself,” he said.
In the light-duty passenger vehicle market, lightweighting processes are used to remove excess weight and – in most cases – keep that weight off to increase both performance and efficiency. However, Macher explains that most CV manufacturers look to transfer weight savings into the payload – the carrying capacity of the truck: “There is significant potential in this regard. What we are going to see is continued emphasis on powertrain improvements for fuel economy, improved diesel burn, things of that nature. As we see weight saved, in many cases truck manufacturers will transfer it directly into the ability to carry additional load.”
For most applications, CSP can directly substitute one material for another, potentially resulting in a 150lb payload increase for a truck. “This is a substantial figure when multiplied by the millions of miles that are traversed by these trucks,” comments Macher.
Competition from materials suppliers
R&D is “critical” to CSP’s operations, he explains. “We’re going to use it to a competitive advantage, that’s our objective.” In terms of competition within the CV lightweighting supply base, Macher believes that material suppliers will be the main competitors: “I used to think our competitors were outside composite manufacturers, but today I think the competition is aluminium suppliers.”
Aluminium use has been increasing in the field of automotive manufacturing and is expected to grow exponentially, with predictions that its suppliers will have secured a 27% share of the materials used in body in white (BIW) manufacturing by 2025.
“It has changed as the emphasis on lightweighting has become more and more important in transportation,” he continued, “which is why we started to change our focus. I don’t really worry about my parts competition directly; I worry more about materials competition,” he said.
Macher will be speaking in the Vehicle Lightweighting track during Automotive Megatrends USA on 17 March 2015.
Freddie Holmes
