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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
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MARKET SPOTLIGHT
LIGHTWEIGHT AUTOMOTIVE BODYPANELS MARKET
REVVINGUP
Future Market Insights, Valley Cot-
tage, N.Y., released a new report,
Light-
weight Automotive Body Panels Market:
Global Industry Analysis and Opportuni-
ty Assessment, 2016-2026.
Global sales
were valued at $99.6 billion at the end
of 2016, seeing 3.9% growth over 2015.
Body panels such as bumpers, hoods,
door panels, roofs, and trunk lids are
manufactured using lightweight ma-
terials such as high-strength steel, alu-
minum, magnesium, and polymers and
composites to provide desired strength
with reduced weight. A 25% reduction
in automobile weight saves approxi-
mately 3.5 to 5 tons of greenhouse gas
emissions over the life of an average car.
According to analysts, steady re-
covery in global automotive production
along with an increasing focus on light-
weighting is driving market demand
for lightweight body panels. Further,
rising disposable income with growing
economic conditions has also spurred
global automotive production. With
increased production, concerns about
greenhouse gas emissions is rising glob-
ally. In order to tackle these emissions,
READER QUESTIONS HYDRINO
HYPOTHESIS
I generally find the “Industry News”
department easy to read and technically
informative. I presume someone verifies
the story backgrounds so we can trust
that we are reading legit information, but
occasionally something slips through. In
this case, it is “Clean, Green Electric Power
on the Horizon” [October issue, “Energy
Trends”]. These folks are promoting truly
wishful technology, full of promise but
not much physics. They’ve been pushing
their “hydrino” theory for about 30 years
now and have yet tomake the leap to
reality, but they continue to find suckers,
er, investors. For more information, see
“A Critical Analysis of the Hydrino Model,”
New Journal of Physics, Vol 7, 2005, by
Andreas Rathke of the European Space
Agency. Rathke finds “no theoretical
support of the hydrino hypothesis.” The
company’s press releases are new, but the
fundamental “incompatibility of hydrino
states with quantummechanics” has not
changed. You will recognize we are at
“the horizon” when Brilliant Light Power
Inc. sends a bag of hydrinos to Materials
Park. Until then, keep this and all related
nonsense on the “Stress Relief” page.
WilliamEllis
ERRATA
IntheNovember/Decemberissue,
“MetallurgyLane,”thesentencedescribing
abasicoxygenfurnace(BOF)shouldhave
read:“SteelfromtheBOFwasteemedinto
amachinethat channeled the metal
through a container whereitsolidifiedand
waspreparedfortherollingmills.”
[Thankyoutoourcarefulreadersfornoticing
thiserror.Itwillbecorrectedintheupcoming
bookversionofthishistoricalseries.—Eds.]
governments across the globe are im-
plementing stringent regulations to
meet fuel emission standards. To com-
ply with these regulations, manufactur-
ers are expected to increase their focus
on automotive lightweighting. How-
ever, high costs associated with light-
weighting materials hinder widespread
adoption and are likely to restrict mar-
ket growth over the forecast period.
The lightweight automotive body pan-
els market is segmented on the basis
of material type (metals, polymers and
composites); component type (bum-
pers, hood, door panels, trunk lids, roof,
others); and vehicle type (passenger
car, light commercial vehicle, heavy
commercial vehicle). Key findings of the
new report include:
•
The metals segment is valued at
$92.7 billion at year-end 2016.
•
Door panels comprise 32.9%market
share at year-end 2016.
•
The passenger car segment will
expand at a CAGR of 5.5% over the
forecast period.
For more information, visit future-
marketinsights.com.
After decades of using aluminum for components such as doors and hoods, automakers are
now introducing all-aluminum vehicles. Key applications for automotive aluminum include:
1) Body-in-white or complete vehicle body; 2) structural components; 3) body panels and side
walls; 4) doors, hoods, and trunks; and 5) car trims and sealings. Courtesy of novelis.com.
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