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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 | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 2 5 Training sessions had to be arranged for the new adhesive application systems, welding machines, and metal finishing operations. By the end of April, the team had concluded that they had found no al- ternatives to the combination of PT1/ AL068/XD4600, Alcan AVT materials for pretreatment/lubricant and structural adhesive. Tooling development inevita- bly encountered some serious difficul- ties, and Job 1 was moved to August 17. This time it was met and the first pro- totype build was underway. The first car was finally delivered in October, 15 months after the kick-off. It was an AIV Special High Output (SHO), sport- ing the SHO engine of the Taurus mod- el of the same name. The aluminum vehicle tipped the scales at a robust 239 kg less than a typical steel Taurus SHO, although 46 kg of that came from a difference in option packages. Most of the weight savings came from the structure, but redesign of some oth- er components yielded another 20 kg. Actual weights of the aluminum struc- tures and closures are shown in Table 1. Due to the dedication of Joe Por- cari, the indefatigable supervisor in charge of the overall vehicle, the AIVs were refined vehicles, with NVH, road, and wind noise matching or exceeding the steel versions. Crash tests also con- firmed that they matched or exceed- ed the steel versions in every way. The AIV outperformed the steel in durabili- ty and corrosion tests as well. The final proof was that passengers riding in an AIV were unable to tell the difference from a production steel vehicle. The AIV program built 20 BIWs in its first phase, most of them fully trimmed and drivable, the others for testing. The company was satisfied enough with the results that 20 ad- ditional AIVs were built and made available for lease by employees of partner companies. The body shop prove-out was satisfactorily comple- ted in late March 1993. The door pi- lot build was the last to wrap up a few months later. Much had been learned. The over- all conclusion was that an AIV was indeed possible, but the team had high- lighted a number of open issues that would require further development. The biggest obstacle was that stamping engineering could not guarantee the delivery of a complete set of new tools on time and on budget. In the absence of stamping CAE tools, formability and springback compensation issues would always force an extended manual tool tryout period, adding significant cost and timing to the tool budget. The sec- ond issue had to do with the unavail- ability of nondestructive weld testing in body construction. Steel welds could be pry-tested without destroying the assembly. Not so with aluminum, for whichpry-testingwas adestructive test. The cost of lost production was consid- erable, and a solution was needed be- fore any production program could be contemplated. Two other smaller is- sues had also surfaced: Future-proof- ing against upcoming environmental legislation meant the development of a chrome-free pretreatment. And last but not least, Alcan’s super-lubricant AL068 was not suitable for the warmer Ameri- can climate and needed reformulation. ALUMINUM PROGRESS CONTINUES The Honda NSX had launched as Ford’s Lightweight Task Force was eval- uating Alcan’s AVT proposal. The Audi A8 launched as the AIV reports were be- ing presented to Ford’s upper manage- ment. The successful launch of these two aluminum vehicles represented en- gineering and manufacturing achieve- ments that cannot be understood outside the brotherhood of automo- tive professionals. The short summa- ries covering their development should only underscore the fact that neither of the present authors were part of them. We hope that the added details of the Ford AIV story will serve to highlight the challenges they had to overcome, because launching a vehicle into pro- duction is a far greater challenge than building a fleet of prototypes. We will explore that in our next installment, as Ford moves to put its first AIV into production. ~AM&P For more information: Laurent Chap- puis, president, Light Metal Consultants LLC, 8600 Church Rd., Grosse Ile, MI, 48138, lbchappuis@icloud.com. Selected References and Sources 1. Mark White (Jaguar Land Rover – retired) for the XJ220. 2. The Aluminium Automotive Man- ual – Body Structures, Version 2013 (Auto@EAA.be ). 3. 1991 Acura NSX Body Part I – Acura Automobiles – Honda News for the Honda NSX, https://hondanews. com/channels/acura-automobiles/ releases/1991-acura-nsx-body-part-i?- year=1990. 4. The Original Acura NSX: Devel- opment History and Driving the Icon – Autoblog, https://www.autoblog.com/ 2016/09/28/the-original-acura-nsx- development-history-and-driving- the-icon/. 5. For the 1994 Audi A8, Todd Summe (Novelis, then Alcoa) and Corrado Bassi (Alusuisse/Novelis – retired). 6. Mike Kelly (Alcan – retired) for his memories of the AVT and AIV projects. 7. For the Ford AIV project, the au- thors thank Joe Weishaar of Ford, along with Ford retirees Joe Porcari, Andy Sherman, and Susan Ward.