Ford, Yanfeng, General Motors, Toyota, BASF, Shiloh Industries, Nemak, McMaster University made new breakthroughs in vehicle lightweighting and sustainable development, and successfully won the Automotive Lightweight Award
Shanghai, August 2, 2022, Altair announced the winners of the 10th annual Altair Enlighten Award.
The award, jointly presented by Altair and the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), aims to recognize organizations and companies that have achieved major breakthroughs in the field of sustainable development and lightweighting, especially in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and reducing water resources. Organizations and companies that have made outstanding contributions to energy consumption and promotion of material reuse and recycling.
Chinese car company Human Horizons won the 10th Altair Enlighten Award for lightweight enabling technology, becoming the only car brand from China in the list of winners of the 10th annual Altair Enlighten Award.
"This year's Enlighten Award nominees are among the best in the industry, proving that the automotive industry has invested enormous resources in meeting and exceeding global sustainability goals," said Richard Yen, senior vice president of product and strategy at Altair. Over the years, we have seen hundreds of outstanding entries, and the Enlighten Award has gradually transformed from showcasing lightweight initiatives in vehicles to recognizing companies that fully embrace sustainability and are committed to creating a net-zero environment and a circular economy."
Human Horizons integrated high-pressure die-cast rear cockpit, reducing the weight of the rear cockpit by up to 20%
The Human Horizons integrated high pressure die casting (HPDC) rear cockpit won the runner-up in the 10th Altair Enlighten Award for lightweight enabling technology. Human Horizons uses heat-free materials and high-pressure die casting in its rear cockpit, thereby reducing the weight of the rear cockpit by up to 20%, achieving lighter weight, reducing energy consumption, and increasing vehicle cruising range.
In addition, the HPDC rear cockpit integrates 40 components of the rear floor into a single component, reducing manufacturing time by one-third and greatly improving the efficiency of body development. The implementation of integrated die-casting technology fully demonstrates that Human Horizons has a long-term development team in the automotive industry and a solid system, experience, knowledge and cross-border innovation capabilities.
Human Horizons has strong technical strength and resource integration capabilities in the aspects of integrated design of parts, performance formulation of cast aluminum materials, mold development and production line implementation, parts manufacturing process, and vehicle verification.
In addition to Human Horizons, the German branch of Yanfeng, a Chinese auto parts supplier, also won the Altair Enlighten Award for Future Lightweight Runner-up. Jeffrey Stout, Executive Director of Yanfeng Global Innovation Technology, will attend the award ceremony.
The full list of winners, runners-up and honorable mentions is as follows:
sustainable product
Winner: Ford Motor Company, 2022 F-150 Lightning — 2022 Ford F-150 Lighting has a larger battery that delivers up to 580 hp and 775 lb.-ft. of torque (the largest rev in the F-150 lineup) moment), while also featuring a high-tech front body that even powers the house if necessary.
Powered by dual built-in motors, the F-150 Lightning has a range of up to 320 miles on select models, and features an all-new steel frame that supports up to 2,235 pounds of payload and up to 10,000 pounds of towing capacity.
Runner-up: Lacks Enterprises, Composite Wheel Technology — Lack Enterprises' innovative weight-saving composite wheel technology featured in the 2022-2025 Youth Vehicle Greenhouse released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Recognized in the "Interim Assessment of Air Emission Standards and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards" report.
This patented wheel design allows for multiple finishes and designs on the same wheel frame, increasing trim differentiation while saving costs and optimizing aerodynamics and fuel efficiency.
sustainable process
Winner: Nemak, Recycled Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing and Products – Nemak's melting center produces aluminum-silicon alloys for the automotive industry. Nemak recycles 2.5 billion aluminum cans annually, making a huge contribution to sustainable manufacturing. With a recycling capacity of more than 400,000 tons per year, the process reduces the energy required for primary aluminum extraction by 95%, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 4.8 million tons per year.
Runner-up: ArcelorMittal, First Industrial Large-Scale Hydrogen Direct Reduced Iron Trial (H2 DRI Trial) — ArcelorMittal launches first large-scale hydrogen injection green trial at DRI plant Drive large-scale green steel supply to automotive OEMs.
sustainable materials
Winner: Ford Motor Company, Wire Harness Clip Made of 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Ocean Plastic (PA6) — Ford's first breakthrough in the industry by incorporating 100% PCR ocean plastic into an auto part.
Materials for these components, collected by workers from plastic waste in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, not only promote healthy marine life, but also reduce waste disposal in landfills, reduce energy consumption, and provide employment.
Runner-up: Nucor Corporation, the world's first mass-produced net-zero carbon steel Econiq — Nucor Corporation has achieved the world's first mass-production of net-zero steel, pioneering a way to reduce emissions without changing vehicle design or emission ratings new method.
Econiq is currently open to supply to all automotive companies and has a very high percentage of recycled content, making it the leading mass-produced net-zero steel in North America.
Lightweight enabling technology
Winner: Shiloh Industries, General Motors, ShilohCore Acoustic Patch Laminate (APL) — Comparable noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) suppression performance to fully laminated automotive materials, but with less weight, lower emissions and lower cost. Patented ShilohCore NVH suppression can be customized to achieve the desired temperature range and target frequency, while maintaining vehicle fuel efficiency and reducing raw material usage.
Runner-up: Human Horizons, All-in-One High Pressure Die Cast (HPDC) Rear Cockpit — Human Express incorporated high pressure die casting and heat-free materials into its rear cockpit manufacturing process, resulting in a weight reduction of up to 20%.
The HPDC rear cockpit integrates the 40 components of the rear floor into a single part, reducing manufacturing and mold development time by a third.
Runner-up: Bionic Mesh Design GmbH – Bionic Mesh Design GmbH improves and redefines lightweight design for large-scale casting and forging production. These lightweight designs are achieved by directly translating the topology in the CAD model and optimizing the production process.
Bionic mesh design reduces design time by 90 percent compared to standard solid modeling processes, helping automotive OEMs and suppliers get products to market faster.
Lightweight in the future
Winner: McMaster University and Nemak, New Lightweight Automotive Aluminum Alloy NemAlloy — a new high-strength aluminum die-cast alloy that can meet the needs of automotive structural components without heat treatment. Nemalloy's superior lightweight benefits without the need for heat treatment make it a fully recyclable solution that can help businesses transform the way they produce, opening up new avenues for net-zero emissions.
Runner-up: Adient, UltraThin Seat — Adient manufactures ultra-thin reinforced car seats made from comfortable thermoplastic elastomer panels. UltraThin's design saves not only space and weight, but also labor, assembly time, and material and part count.
Runner-up: Yanfeng, Dashboard and Passenger Airbag (IP PAB) Integration — IP PAB integration allows for the integration of the chute with the airbag module housing, reducing costs and creating synergies during development. By using alternative materials and reducing weight by 23%, the system reduces the product's carbon footprint by 50%.
Lightweight Enablement Honorable Mention: AMC, csi entwicklungstechnik, DITF, BMW M, NaMiKo bio-based car center console — The NaMiKo project team aims to create lightweight and zero-emission products, combining the concept of sustainable development, systematic life cycle Combining analysis and lightweight design, the car center console was developed using the "3D NFK" filament winding process and circular "smart textiles" and bio-based natural fiber composites.
Module lightweight
Winner: BASF, Toyota and L&L Products, Toyota Tundra 2nd Row Seat Frame — Toyota Tundra replaces over 60 stamped and welded steel components in the seat assembly with just 4 composite components, resulting in a significant reduction in weight The weight of the second-row seat frame. These production changes enable a 20 percent weight reduction and 20 percent cost savings compared to previous generations of steel seat frames.
Runner-up: Bocar Group, Toyota Tundra Rear Body – Toyota Tundra Rear Body – Bocar Lightweight Design is the first visual “A” class exterior structural die-casting application that reduces vehicle weight by 4.4kg (9.7 lbs) per vehicle per year and 78.9kg (173.9 lbs) of CO2 emissions for more sustainable mobility.
"The organizations and companies shortlisted for the 2022 Enlighten Award are a testament to the tremendous progress the automotive industry has made in creating more sustainable products," said Carla Bailo, president and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research. In partnership with Altair, we are able to showcase on the world stage the most unique and proven innovative approach the automotive industry has developed to achieve weight reduction and sustainability goals."
The Enlighten winners will be officially announced at an awards ceremony at CAR Management Briefing Seminars on August 2, 2022 at 8 a.m. ET. For more information on the Enlighten Award, please visit .
2022 Altair Enlighten Award media partners include SAE, Automotive Engineering, Tech Briefs and Automobil Industrie.
About Altair
Altair (NASDAQ: ALTR) is a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence (AI), providing software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence. Altair enables businesses across a broad range of industries to compete more efficiently in a connected world and create a more sustainable future.
The company is headquartered in Michigan, USA, serving more than 13,000 global enterprises, and its application industries include automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace, energy, rolling stock, shipbuilding, defense industry, finance, retail, etc.