Automotive locking systems provider developing electronic locks in Wixom.
June 24, 2016
Manufacturing Group Cars/Light trucks Manufacturing
Wixom, Michigan – Automotive locking systems company Kiekert, will invest $1 million to expand its U.S. development and manufacturing center in Wixom this year. In total, Kiekert will have invested more than $2.2 million to expand its local test and prototype-development facilities and increase production capacity in the U.S. since 2013.
The improvements will nearly triple production at the Wixom plant from 350,000 door-latch modules in 2013 to more than 1 million units this year. The expansion adds 15,000ft2 to the now 50,000ft2 Wixom facility.
As the lead engineering and program management center for the NAFTA region, Kiekert’s Wixom location and its sister plant in Mexico are responsible for nearly $200 million in annual revenue. Kiekert has a market share of 25% in the NAFTA region.
“Starting in 1994, Kiekert Wixom became a sought-after partner for R&D in North America,” says Mike Hietbrink, general manager Kiekert USA and global sales director. “We will continue our path of innovation and exploring global mega trends such as autonomous driving, interconnectivity, and digital solutions to serve the rising needs of our customers.”
Kiekert has more than 20 technology development projects underway with carmakers that could lead to series production in the coming years. Recent projects include the E-Latch, the LED-Latch, and the Kiekert i-protect.
With Kiekert E-Latch, contact with an electronic touch sensor on the door’s outer skin opens a vehicle door automatically. The system offers lower operating forces and an improved door-handle look-and-feel. E-Latches offer wide-ranging styling and design options, including integration of the handle within the door or dispensing with it altogether.
E-Latches are more compact, have fewer components and weigh less than today’s locking systems. For safety’s sake, it offers full mechanical redundancy to guarantee operation in the event of a power failure.
“Our E-Latch opens up a new world of forward-looking locking-system solutions for vehicle makers,” notes Hector Verde, Kiekert’s director of product development for the Americas. E-Latch will go into production in 2017.
Kiekert’s LED-Latch provides safety features as well as various design options. The integrated LED in the latch is clearly visible in the dark throughout the entire door opening, in contrast to more narrowly focused door-warning lights. The LED system also offers a choice of color and brightness to meet individual customer preferences.
The LED-Latch can be used in any vehicle and also can be used on rear compartment latches, providing a trunk light. It also can be used in conjunction with Kiekert’s new E-Latch system.
Kiekert i-protect prevents car doors from unintentionally striking nearby objects. The i-protect features a camera sensor that detects nearby vehicles or obstacles and is paired with an innovative door-brake system to prevent door dings or dents.
The system was developed from concept to prototype in just six months and was suggested by a group of high school students in Cologne, Germany, who won an award for the idea in a national “business@school” contest in Germany. The i-protect system will be available for series production by 2020.
Source: Kiekert AG
European initiative with BMW looks to lower alternative powertrain costs.
June 24, 2016
Manufacturing Group Cars/Light trucks Design Powertrain
Maumee, Ohio – Dana Holding Corp. has joined a consortium of fuel-cell component developers, academic institutions, and automaker BMW Group for a three-year project to develop and validate next-generation automotive fuel-cell stack technology and materials. The overall intent of the Project INSPIRE consortium is to accelerate the commercialization of high-performance, zero-emission fuel-cell-powered electric vehicles and to increase the competitiveness of the European fuel-cell industry on the world stage.
As part of the consortium, engineers at Dana’s technology center in Neu-Ulm, Germany, will lead the development of an advanced metallic bipolar plate design, which delivers hydrogen and air to membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), a critical component of automotive fuel cells. Dana’s Neu-Ulm facility is recognized for its expertise in sealing technology, as well as for the stamping, joining, and coating processes that are required for high-volume manufacturing of metallic bipolar plates. Dana’s patented metallic bipolar plate technology will help the fuel-cell industry meet its commercialization cost and performance targets.
Dwayne Matthews, president of the Dana Power Technologies Group, says, “Dana looks forward to collaborating with our project partners to devise innovative fuel-cell technologies that will go beyond what is currently considered state-of-the art and which will help drive the future of the powertrain industry.”
Project INSPIRE is being supported by a grant of nearly $8 million from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), a public-private partnership that supports research, technological development, and demonstration activities in the fuel-cell and hydrogen energy sectors in Europe. FCH JU’s goal is to accelerate the introduction of these technologies and help realize their potential as an instrument in achieving a carbon-lean energy system, while meeting the cost, durability, and power density targets critical for mass market success.
FCH JU is composed of the European Commission; the fuel cell and hydrogen industries, represented by Hydrogen Europe; and the research community, represented by Research Grouping N.ERGHY.
Johnson Matthey, a global supplier of fully-integrated MEAs, will lead the consortium and coordinate the project activities; Pretexo will provide project management support. Other INSPIRE consortium partners include fuel-cell component developer SGL Carbon GmbH, and academic partners CNRS Montpellier, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Technical University of Munich, Technical University of Berlin, and the University of Freiburg. Each of the organizations participating in the consortium offers unique and valuable expertise in the field of fuel-cell capabilities.
Source: Dana Corp.
At the IMTS 2016 Conferences, William Sobel of System Insights will discuss managing shopfloor data.
June 24, 2016
Manufacturing Group
Chicago, Illinois – MTConnect has opened up an unprecedented amount of data from the shopfloor data, and managing and making sense of this data requires a rethink of the traditional software architectures seen in the shopfloor. This talk will discuss the design and development of a scalable MTConnect data architecture. The talk will introduce the key elements of the architecture, including data ingress, storage, analytics and visualization, and will present an open-source technology stack for scaling MTConnect-based analytics. The talk will also discuss lessons learnt from other domains including finance, entertainment, and e-commerce.
About the speaker
William Sobel has over 20 years of industry experience in successful startups managing the development of innovative application infrastructure software products. In recent years, as the principal author and architect of the MTConnect Standard, Mr. Sobel has led the industry toward significant advances in collection and analysis of machine data. Prior to System Insights, Mr. Sobel was VP/Chief Architect at MSCI-Barra, specializing in financial risk management software for some of the largest asset management companies in the world. Mr. Sobel led a team to architect and build their hosted risk management software as a service (SaaS) platform. In 1995, Mr. Sobel co-founded Redpoint Software, a leading capital markets enterprise risk management software company. At Redpoint, Mr. Sobel architected and built a real-time distributed database caching infrastructure to support fault tolerant parallelized analytics for financial risk management and trading systems.
Registration for the IMTS 2016 Conferences is open now!
J.D. Power IQS shows big improvements for GM, Ford, FCA.
June 23, 2016
Manufacturing Group Cars/Light trucks Manufacturing Quality/Metrology