LISI AUTOMOTIVE has recently obtained the support agreement from the French government for the development of two of its projects “LEAD SCREW” and “µ-MACH-AP”:
- The “LEAD SCREW” project, supported by the LISI AUTOMOTIVE Former plant in Delle, is one of the first 13 companies to benefit from this support fund announced on May 26, 2020 by the French President. The fund to support the automotive sector aims to accompany investments in modernizing the sector. The “LEAD SCREW” project is part of a product diversification dynamic to cope with the decline of internal combustion engines and the rise in vehicle electrification. This product diversification aims to develop the components used for the transmission of power from an electric motor to a comfort component in the passenger compartment of the vehicle of the future.
- The “µ-MACH-AP” project (micro mechanical anchoring cold hybrid assembly process), which is subject of a patent application in 2019, will enable LISI AUTOMOTIVE to create an industrial demonstrator and a prototype line of its innovative approach to multi-material assembly, in close collaboration with the Institut Carnot Bourgogne of the Technological University of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM). The innovative process proposed consists of cold supersonic additive manufacturing (Cold Spray) in situ of an aluminum alloy bead on the surfaces of two parts to be assembled mechanically. First, the two surfaces to be assembled are textured thanks to a laser beam with a certain energy and frequency to generate one or more micrometric networks of holes, lines, or patterns. The support for this project is part of the action “Industrial projects of the future” (PIAVE) of the Future Investments Program and the action plan announced by Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister of Economy and Finance, during the Automotive Industry Day on December 2, 2019. The aim of this project is to accompany the major changes in the automotive industry such as: the transition to electromobility, the decrease of diesel engine production, vehicle light-weighting, etc.
Thus, the μ-MACH-AP process enables the production of an aluminum alloy bead by additive manufacturing instead of mechanically assembling two parts, with no limitation of shape or thickness, while limiting the mass gain to offer solutions for multi-material assemblies consistent with vehicle light-weighting objectives.
The demonstrator produced will allow this new assembly technology to be industrialized and demonstrate its relevance and reliability in a mass production environment.
The “µ-MACH-AP” project is part of a strong development dynamic in the automotive market where multi-material assembly points are expected to be deployed widely in order to contribute to vehicle light-weighting, for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the increase in the range of partially or fully electrified vehicles.
SOURCE: LISI Automotive
