Chassis
brackets for Class 8 trucks could be the first area of joint development by Ricardo
which has teamed up with Detroit Materials Inc. to help the start-up US company
commercialise its products into the automotive sector.
Detroit Materials is a
start-up firm focused on the commercialization of ultra-high performance structural
materials. The company recently won an SAE award for its ultra-high strength castable low-alloy
steel to support vehicle light-weighting initiatives.
The market interest for
affordable light-weighting of vehicle structures is high, due to both light
duty fuel economy mandates and forthcoming freight efficiency rules for medium
and heavy duty trucks.
Detroit Materials claims it
has developed the strongest castable low-alloy steel in the market. This
advanced steel offers a combination of strength, toughness, hardness and
elongation currently only available using highly alloyed and costly exotic
steels.
The company’s nano-structured
ultra high-strength steel provides the ability to produce thin walled castings
for demanding applications, offering the best-in-class performance per dollar
as compared to titanium, aluminium, ultra-high strength steel, carbon fibre and
other emerging advanced high strength steels.
The material has the
potential to support a variety of lightweight structural applications in the
passenger vehicle, truck, defence, off-highway, and transportation industries.
With the support of Ricardo
Strategic Consulting, Detroit Materials will initially focus on lower barrier
to entry markets, such as chassis brackets for the Class 8 truck market, where
the cast steel offers up to 58 percent weight savings – translated to the
entire US Class 8 fleet this would deliver a potential fuel savings of over 80
million gallons (303 million litres) of diesel a year.
As Class 8 trucks account for
15 per cent of transportation energy consumption, this curb vehicle weight
improvement will provide a potential savings per vehicle of over 1,500 gallons
(5,678 litres) of fuel and 18 tons (US) (16.3 tonnes) of CO2e annually.
This technology will support
manufacturers’ immediate needs to meet 2017 GHG emission and fuel consumption
standards for heavy- and medium-duty vehicles.
Ricardo Strategic Consulting
is working with Detroit Materials also to assess market opportunities and best
entry points based on the cast steel’s competitive position. Detroit Materials
and Ricardo are also assessing automotive component manufacturing costs to
identify and resolve market entry barriers for new suppliers to low and high
annual volume vehicles.
Last year, Detroit Materials
Inc. of Wixom, Michigan and a Wayne State University spin-off, received an
investment of $250,000 from the Detroit Innovation Fund as well as a $150,000
small business grant to develop high-strength material technology.
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