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New axle systems
by “Benteler Vehicle
Dynamics” improve
driving dynamics and
tire mileage – and
reduce the braking
distance for passenger
cars.
MANAGEMENT REPORT
StRuCtuRAl CoMponentS
The conflicting goals of lightweight construction, crash safety performance, and ensuring rigidity call
for alternative approaches to vehicle structure solutions. The resulting new component geometries
require adjusted production concepts that are currently undergoing trial runs. For a large-scale series
project, the first hot-formed body structural component with eight different plate thicknesses was
developed and implemented in series production. The rolled blank used for the purpose is shaped and
hardened in a direct hot-forming process. The resulting component has a 20 % weight advantage. An
innovation for ultra-high-strength hot-formed parts is partial multi-zone heat treatment, a further
development of the well-established two-zone heat treatment technique. This makes it possible to
implement characteristics appropriate for requirements by way of the component geometry, and both
to improve crash performance and to reduce cost in the subsequent trimming operations.
Benteler also operates in electromobility, for example in developing subsystems for two large space
frame structure projects and in designing and implementing the overall vehicle concept. One challenge is
developing support systems for lithium batteries and implementing them for the production line.
Complex requirement profiles have led to joining techniques that are otherwise used in aviation. Series
production is currently in preparation.
In hybrid structures, expertise is applied from the fields of steel, aluminum and fiber reinforced polymers
(FRP) to create lightweight construction solutions with characteristics appropriate to requirements. FRPs
are used in hybrid structures, and are being worked on in close cooperation with the Benteler-SGL joint
venture. Development began during the year on fiber-reinforced structural components, such as B-pillars,
and for fiber-reinforced steel and aluminum components, being developed as a basis for using FRP
reinforcement in large-scale series production.
DevelopMentS In DRIvIng DYnAMICS
The aim of the “Benteler Vehicle Dynamics” project is to improve driving safety, driving comfort and driving
dynamics in passenger cars. On the basis of the new “power loss” method, an axle was developed that
represents a fundamental contradiction of the automotive industry’s conventional design strategies for
driving dynamics. To assess the axle’s performance, a car was retrofitted and compared against a seriesproduced
vehicle. The tests fully measured up to expectations. For example, the test vehicle achieved
almost 40 % better tire mileage, and both lap times and braking paths on a wet track improved significantly.
Research and Development Report
36