Lightweighting Automotive Materials Program (LAMP): Final 3 Executive Reports Released
The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences is proud to announce the release of the final 3 Executive Reports from the Lightweighting Automotive Materials Program (LAMP)
This effort was borne of a partnership between NCMS, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. LAMP was initiated because automakers and suppliers are required to increase fuel efficiency to meet Federal CAFE standards for emissions and economy. You can view the latest releases at the links below.
Ultra-Lightweight Sandwich Composition: A Predictive Simulation Approach A Simplified CFD Analysis of Lightweight Add-ons for Tow Vehicles Trailer Bodies
Lightweight Fiber Composite Structures with Embedded Communications
Prior to LAMP, lightweighting was too expensive, too difficult to manufacture at scale, and didn’t work as well as conventional options. Automakers were understandably hesitant to insert lightweight processes into mass production vehicles before all these challenges were addressed. That was LAMP’s focus, and thanks to our project partners NCMS was able to double down on innovation by integrating advanced modeling, simulation & analysis (MS&A) into the process. LAMP allowed participants to access MS&A tools, and develop powerful new ones, enabling an advancement of 21st Century Digital Manufacturing as well.
Nine projects conducted under LAMP were accomplished by a spectrum of NCMS members:
- Decision Incite (Great Falls, VA)
- Dassault Systemes Simulia (Troy, MI)
- SimaFore (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Nimbis Services (McLean, VA)
- Clemson University ICAR (Greenville, SC)
- BMW (Greer, SC)
- OKUMA America (Charlotte, NC)
- American Titanium Works (Greenville, SC)
- L&L Products (Romeo, MI)
- Altair Engineering (Troy, MI)
- R Systems NA (Champaign, IL)
- GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY)
- Plasan Carbon Composites (Bennington, VT)
- MAHLE Industries (Farmington Hills, MI)
- Engineered Performance Materials (Whitmore Lake, MI)
- Fives, formerly MAG-IAS (Hebron, KY)
Thanks to their efforts on LAMP, light materials can be strong – and easily manufactured, cost-effective, and as good (or better) than the traditional solutions. LAMP was also the spark of inspiration that ignited the Grid Initiative™, a national Digital Manufacturing adoption effort designed and driven by NCMS. Digital Manufacturing is the next great change in how products are built. With the Grid, NCMS intends to accelerate and ease the transition to Digital Manufacturing, a technique that combines immense computing power, big data, and cloud systems to virtualize physical processes.
To view all of the Executive Reports for the LAMP program go to LAMP Lights the Way on DoitinDigital.com
Sincerely,
Steven E. Hale
Steve Hale, Senior Program Manager, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS). He leads collaborative efforts to solve manufacturing problems by working side-by-side with cross-sector companies at the engineering level to president and CEO levels in many industries.