Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, has officially announced the winner of its 2024 Altair Enlighten Award. According to certain reports, presented in collaboration with Center for Automotive Research (CAR), this particular award recognizes greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that are currently playing a big role in reducing carbon footprint, mitigating water and energy consumption, and leveraging material reuse and recycling efforts. Talk about the winners on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the award’s Sustainable Product category, where the winner was DuPont, as well as its DuPont™ BETAMATE™ Broad Bake Adhesive Technology. You see, the stated technology effectively cuts back on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions during vehicle body manufacturing, something it does by allowing adhesives to cure at lower temperatures. Such a setup, on its part, goes a long way to save energy via reduced e-coat oven temperatures and shorter oven cycle times. Furthermore, such a technology also eliminates the need for cold storage, thanks to a special formulation that extends shelf life. Next up, we have the Sustainable Process category, which saw BMW M emerging as a winner. The decision was made on the basis of its BMW M Visionary Materials Seat that focuses on circular design principles and sustainable materials. More on the same would reveal how the seat in question features a monomaterial lightweight design which preaches the use of renewable materials, such as recycled polyester textile, flaxfiber BioComposite, and biogene leather alternatives. The technology would also ensure that, wherever possible, petrol-based raw materials could have the input of bio-based materials. These bio-based materials, on their part, were made from algaes and plant-based fillers like chalk and cork.
Then, there was the Module Lightweighting category that adjudged Syensqo and General Motors as winners because of their innovative high-performance thermoplastic battery module structure. In essence, this structure can conceive a 37% weight reduction and a 25% cost savings compared to traditional aluminum. To expand upon some of its specific features, they include enhanced vehicle performance through precision injection molding, streamlined component consolidation for simplified assembly, and a unique cell-lock feature that stabilizes battery cells. Furthermore, the technology also tends to eliminate multiple components and processes to optimize efficiency. Moving on to a category built around the prospect of Enabling Technology. Altair picked CompositeEdge GmbH as the winner for this one, keeping in mind the latter’s next-gen sustainable high-performance structures. Built to minimize overall material usage, CompositeEdge GmbH utilized natural fiber composites , including flax and hemp fiber, blended with plastic to form high-performance structures that can support the automated manufacture of car body panels, interior trims, chassis parts, suspension elements, and more. They can also do so without mandating the use of any adhesives. Anyway, the intention behind leveraging natural fiber composites stemmed from their potential in the context of reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption, as compared to synthetic materials.
Moving on to the Future of Lightweighting category, where WEAV3D, Braskem, and Clemson Composites Center edged out everyone else. This came mainly on the back of a bid to develop one composite lattice-reinforced polypropylene sheet tailorable to match the performance of any vehicle body structure on the market. Manufactured at a high rate, this polypropylene sheet happens to cost 50% less, while simultaneously weighing 23% lighter than CFPA6 organosheet (nylon 6), and weighing between 60-70% less than steel. Not just that, it would also come decked up with 62% reduction in trim scrap by weight. For the Responsible AI category, Dow Inc and its sustainable SPECFLEXTM polyurethane solutions were deemed as better than the rest. These solutions basically focus on developing and using cleaner raw materials and unique design principles to optimize performance. Furthermore, they are also understood to be significantly safer and more sustainable, with over 50% lower total volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 60% lower formaldehyde, and 80% lower acetaldehyde.
