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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 U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 2 9 assumptions for an AIV F-150, under the codename ACE. On the alloy front, the team recommended the fast heat treat cycle developed by Friedman and pi- loted with Aston Martin and JLR. That meant 6111 for high-strength structural applications. Skins would use the new family of “low Cu” 6xxx alloys being launched at the time. Alloy 5182 would be limited to door inners while 5754 would be used for floors and other light structural applications. A newset ofmaterial specifications would be developed with a focus on re- cyclability. Joining would follow the AIV concept—structural adhesive bond- ing with point joints, either resistance spot welding (RSW) or self-piercing riv- eting (SPR). A new surface pretreat- ment would have to be shared among suppliers, either Alcoa’s A951 or a new product under development by Novelis. Quaker Drycote 2-90 would be the sin- gle stamping lubricant, having been ap- proved during the post-X350 develop- ment program. Alongside a new large- scale adhesive testing program, they also initiated a review of the state of the art in mid-frequency welding and non- destructive testing assessment. Even at this early stage, Program Engineering needed to confirm that an aluminum F-150 could meet some of the safety attributes. All previous AIV projects had focused on unibody de- signs, and ACE was a full-size truck, with a separate cab and box on a frame. In such a design, crash performance is managed jointly by the cab and chas- sis. Further, a truck has higher roof load requirements during a rollover. By Oc- tober, the body engineering team had secured funding for two series of proto- types, called X0 and X1. F-150 PROTOTYPES X0 was the “go fast” prototype, a rushed reengineering of the existing steel truck into an aluminum version that a prototype shop could quickly fabricate. This prototype build was led by Corey Jarocki, a veteran prototype development engineer. From the en- gineering kickoff meeting in late Sep- tember, a plan had been quickly put in place. The build would take place at Troy Design and Manufacturing (TDM) in Michigan. Novelis was selected to sup- ply the necessary sheet metal without worrying about providing any produc- tion-representative surface treatment or lubricant. Time was of the essence, with fabrication slated for January and delivery of bodies and boxes in time to start testing by late March. Only one drivable unit was scheduled, with the others to be used as bucks for testing. X1 was the more ambitious proj- ect, with four major goals all aimed at minimizing risk to the program: first, to confirm that vehicle attribute perfor- mance targets could be met, including safety, noise/vibration/hardness (NVH), and durability; second, to ensure cor- relation between computer analytical models and physical testing; third, to validate that the weight target could be met; and fourth, to validate the model- ing methods for the stamping engineer- ing team. By that time, Mark Keller had been named the body engineering manag- er for the project. He reported to the body engineering chief, Bruno Bar- thelemy, who had led the aluminum development programs a decade earli- er. Keller put Darrin Wagner, a veteran body engineering supervisor, in charge of the redesign. X1 was to be a fully engineered equivalent of the current production truck, meeting all of the du- rability, NVH, and safety targets. As an added challenge, and unlike X0, the re- engineering had to be such that each part could be manufactured by simu- lated production methods. This meant that Stamping Engineering would con- duct a full computer-aided engineering (CAE) feasibility assessment for all the major stampings. In addition, the thick gauge structural stampings would be modeled for springback and the proto- type tools would be compensated, just like for a production tool. The final stip- ulation was that X1 should be visual- ly indistinguishable from a production truck, with a build date in third quar- ter 2010. Both X0 and X1 were support- ed by the advanced CAE team from the research division, led by Dave Wagner. For X1, the raw materials purchas- ing team had to officially approach the two aluminum suppliers, share the emerging strategy for the new truck, Ford 2009 F-150 SuperCrew. Ford 2015 F-150 prototype aluminum truck. Courtesy of Ford Motor Company.