TMS 2007: Lectures

Light Metals Division Luncheon

Topic: "FreedomCAR Automotive Lightweighting Materials"
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 28
Register for this lecture through the TMS 2007 Annual Meeting & Exhibition registration form. Cost: $45

Expanding world economic prosperity, probable peaking of conventional petroleum production capacity in the coming decades, and environmental concerns require efforts to increase the efficiency of petroleum-based fuels in automotive transportation, and to develop alternatives.

The United States government has been aggressively pursuing research and development (R&D) on both for over ten years in conjunction with the auto, truck and energy-supply industries.

Lightweighting of vehicles is an effective way of addressing efficiency of use, directly through mass reduction and indirectly by minimizing diesel, hybrid, and fuel-cell powertrains; these tend to be heavier and more costly per unit of power than the standard internal-combustion, gasoline-fueled powertrains they may replace. Major federal R&D in automotive lightweighting is FreedomCAR Automotive Lightweighting Materials (ALM). R&D first focused on the materials and manufacturing issues of aluminum and glass-fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites (PMCs) but more recently looked to carbon-fiber-reinforced PMCs, advanced high-strength steels, magnesium, titanium, metal-matrix composites and glass.

SPEAKER

JOSEPH A. CARPENTER JR. U.S. Dept. of Energy

Manufacturing issues addressed have included metal production, casting, sheet-metal forming, production of lower cost carbon fiber, fiber-reinforced-PMC component fabrication techniques, joining, nondestructive evaluation, crashworthiness and recycling. There already have been commercial applications of some of the technologies developed, and this effort has provided an excellent example of government-industry cooperation.

Joseph A. Carpenter Jr. is the technology development manager for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Automotive Lightweighting Materials effort, which is part of the FreedomCAR and Fuels Initiative between DOE and automotive and energy-supply industries in the U.S.

Dr. Carpenter held research and research management positions at Chrysler Corporation, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the National Institute for Standards & Technology before joining DOE.