Your frame future

Jan. 1, 2020
When ABRN was conducting its Top Shops research on contest finalist Car West Auto Body, owner Craig Moe presented his vision of the industry's future.

When ABRN was conducting its Top Shops research on contest finalist Car West Auto Body, owner Craig Moe presented his vision of the industry's future. Moe declared that shops would need OEM training, along with the next generation of tools and equipment to conduct more advanced repairs on the vehicles that soon would be passing through their doors.

Of course, Moe isn't alone in his thinking. Many repairers are gearing up for these challenges. According to Carlton Hendricks, an automotive design engineer with more than 25 years in the industry and aftermarket, repairers would be wise to place most of their focus in one particular vehicle area he says will experience the biggest changes – the frame.

The driving reason behind Hendricks’ declaration: It's time for the frame to go through the same evolutionary changes that have affected nearly every other part of a vehicle in the past two decades. If automakers are to meet new CAFÉ standards and make their vehicles appealing to consumers feeling a pinch at the pump, they have to offer even lighter vehicles and those that can sport revolutionary designs.

“Designers have made huge inroads cutting weight and incorporating less expensive materials in the panels, interior and engine. They've probably done as much as they can for the foreseeable future,” says Hendricks. “That leaves the frame. It's still responsible for more than 30 percent of vehicle weight. Before we can move even further in terms of revolutionary world changes in vehicle design, we have to rethink how we manufacture and use the frame.”

Hendricks notes that automakers have known these facts for years but put off redesigning frames because of cost. It was quicker and more cost effect to focus on panels and electronics to shave off pounds and increase efficiency. Designers are taking the lessons learned from these developments to create frames that are quickly moving from drawing boards to planning stages.

Let's look at the most significant of these developments and how they'll affect your business.

Aluminum for everyone
Aluminum frames have been around for decades but because of their cost are exclusive to high-end vehicles. The use of aluminum in other parts has grown steadily. A recent European study indicates the average aluminum content in vehicles has nearly tripled since 1990, rising from 110 lbs. to roughly 310 lbs. as of 2011.

As automakers continue to develop electric and alternative-fuel vehicles, look for this trend to continue and for more vehicles to incorporate these lightweight frames. Also driving their use is the development of manufacturing technologies that can build aluminum frames more efficiently and cheaply than ever before.

Audi is able to deliver significant numbers of its popular, aluminum-frame A8 model to market, thanks to a fully automated fram assembly process.

Audi has led the way in this area. It’s high-volume A8 model utilizes an aluminum frame assembly process that's almost fully automated. The process features 48 bonding machines, 106 machines for self-tapping screws 215 robots, nearly 300 self-piercing rivet systems and a variety of MIG and other welders.

Carbon’s day has come
Revolutionary manufacturing processes similarly are bringing nearer the day when carbon fiber will be a mainstay material in auto frames.

Like aluminum, carbon fiber has been used in other parts for years. The frame was considered off limits due to the cost of the material and the slow drying time for frame components, making them impractical for modern assembly lines.

BMW made major strides to address both these issues in 2011 when it partnered with SGL Carbon SE (SGL) to build its own carbon fiber factory. This enterprise was intended to help the automaker secure a steady supply of carbon fiber and cut costs through a refined production process.

BMW's i3 city car utilizes a carbon fiber frame made from materials processed in a plant owned by the manufacturer.

Less than two years letter, the enterprise is bearing fruit. The material produced by the plant is being used in the frame for BMW’s i3 city car, which should be introduced later this year. 

“The i3 could be really significant,” says Hendricks. “It’s electric, recyclable, has zero emissions, but the big news is that BMW is building it. It’s going to be in cities everywhere. The rest of the industry will be watching it and producing their own if it’s as popular as I’m guessing it will be.”

Plastic perspective
Today, repairers worry about identifying the different types of high-strength steel and ultra high-strength steel they find throughout a frame. As designers rethink frames, they look at replacing all these different materials with other combinations of materials. Automakers already are experimenting with frames that incorporate both carbon fiber and aluminum, or other combinations using magnesium and plastic.

Plastic has shown promise as a frame material that manufacturers will look to. Its main advantage is that it is molded, instead of stamped, making it a better choice for smaller and niche vehicles. Car buyers are trending to these vehicles. The plastics industry has taken note and begun targeting the automotive market, says Hendricks.

While the thought of a frame constructed primarily or partially out of plastic may seem highly improbable, the idea has some history on its side. Henry Ford introduced the first plastic car (70 percent cellulose) in 1941. The car was dropped following WWII mainly due to the availability of inexpensive steel and cheap gas.

Frame power
While designers conceive of new ways to make frames lighter, Hendricks says they’re also seeking alternative uses for it as well. One promising new technology he points to could help turn the frame into a battery.

BAE Systems has been working on technology that it says essentially creates "structural batteries” by merging battery chemicals into composite materials (typically carbon fiber) on the frame. The company already has tested the technology on a Lola-Drayson LeMans racecar.  The vehicle utilizes energy stored in the frame going to juice up some of its on-board electronics (its electric drivetrain is fueled by more traditional fuel cells).

Hendricks notes its success helps provide a solution to a weight issue electric and hybrid vehicles face.

“These vehicles use electric power systems to improve fuel efficiency, but they create some of their own inefficiencies since their batteries add so much weight,” he explains.

“Car makers are turning to lighter weight frames to compensate for the weight,” he continues. “Carbon-fiber frames solve this problem, and they’re an ideal fit for this technology. You end up solving two problems with one solution.”

The 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL roadster features a innovative sound system that incorporates part of the vehicle frame.

Your chassis has never sounded better
Mercedes-Benz is using a similar notion to boost the audio quality of its vehicles. The company has created new technology it calls FrontBass that involves shifting the woofer speakers from the door panels to the footwells where a vehicle’s structural beams are used as enclosures behind the woofers.

The setup reduces baffle vibration, which can distort sound. It also shifts the woofers away from the legs of drivers and passenger legs where sounds are absorbed and blocked.

FrontBass will first appear in the 2013 SL roadsters, and then migrate to other Mercedes models.

Hendricks says this technology paves the way for other uses of the frame, particularly with the panoply of electronic devices motorists want in their vehicles. For repairers, it offers a number of potential headaches, particularly when it comes to addressing collision damages that can be traced to a bent or compromised frame.

Prepare now
Repairers may never see some of these new technologies. Hendricks cautions shops against believing that changes to the frame will come slowly. He says repairers should expect the speed at which these and others innovations hit the market to speed up markedly due to the impact new players in the manufacturing sector – specifically upstart auto builders in India and China – are making in the auto industry.

Hendricks said that domestic and Asian manufacturers, like companies in many other industries, typically move very conservatively when implementing new technologies.

“They're all working on the same technology. They know how much they'll need to spend to develop it for production,” Hendricks explains. “They look at what their competition is doing before they spend that money because they want to hold onto those funds as long as they can. That's why you see manufacturers bring the same technology to market at the same time.”

Indian and Chinese manufacturers have shown they won't abide by this same practice. It's not a part of their business culture, says Hendricks, who further explains that these manufacturers are more willing to take risks with innovations, especially new materials, since they're looking to grab market share any way they can.

“They're either going to force the people in Detroit, Tokyo and Seoul to move faster with changes or they'll open the door for others to offer the same upgrades in their vehicles,” says Hendricks.

Considering just how immense the impact on the repair community could be as frame innovations reach public roads at a rate never before seen, Hendricks says shops could be broken out in two types: Those prepared for the change who will therefore survive and those caught off guard who will never be able to catch up.

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