With computers, high-strength steel and even a little help from Mother Nature, Chrysler LLC says it will be able to reduce the weight of future vehicle structures by about 120 pounds.
Based on biomimetics — the study of using concepts from biological structures and functions in engineering — the new technology reverses the way in which body-in-whites are designed, Bill Grabowski, Chrysler’s director of body core engineering, said today at a press conference here.
In the past, engineers viewed body-in-whites from the bottom up, optimizing each part individually. But using biomimetic topology, the engineers now start by looking at the body-in-white as a whole and work down.
When the body-in-white is viewed holistically, engineers can use computer simulations to determine where load support can safely be removed from the structure. The technique is analogous to the way the bone structure of a bird might evolve, Grabowski says.
Chrysler and Daimler developed the technology in 2003. In 2005, they partnered with the American Iron and Steel Institute to develop applications for high-strength steels in conjunction with the technology.
Chrysler has already started experimenting with the technology on some vehicles, such as the Chrysler Sebring car. It plans to use the technology on entire vehicles within the timeframe of 2010 to 2013, expecting to improve fuel economy by about 1 percent while maintaining safety standards.
“In this whole fuel-economy/safety debate, it’s fairly a powertrain and airbag debate; there’s no mention of the body structure,” Grabowski said. “In reality, at least from the body engineer’s perspective, we think it all begins from a great body design.”
