Trade press, Daily press, 2014-09-16, 10:06 am
ThyssenKrupp presents InCar®plus
New solutions in auto construction: for energy efficiency, electromobility and weight reduction
ThyssenKrupp AG has presented the results of its research project InCar plus. Engineers from the Essen-based company have developed 40 new components and solutions for the auto industry. Customers can benefit from component weight savings of up to 50 percent and cost reductions of up to 20 percent. InCar plus also makes a significant contribution to climate protection: The innovations permit savings of up to eight grams of CO2 per kilometer. Looking at the overall life cycle of a car, including production and recycling, InCar plus represents a saving of 1.6 tons of CO2 per vehicle.
ThyssenKrupp CEO Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger emphasizes the importance of the auto industry for the Group: “Business with the auto industry accounts for a quarter of our sales, almost ten billion euros. And the mobility sector will continue to grow in the long term.” With InCar plus, the Group is once again underlining its competencies as a partner to the auto industry. The focus is on green solutions for energy efficiency, electromobility and weight reduction. The innovations from the InCar plus project can be used in the body, chassis, steering and powertrain. Whether it’s sustainability, weight, cost, or performance – each InCar plus innovation is superior to the current state of the art in at least one of these categories.
A total of 100 engineers from eight companies at 15 locations worked on the project. They come from the business areas Steel Europe, one of the world’s leading material partners to auto manufacturers, Components Technology, one of the world’s foremost component suppliers, and Industrial Solutions, with its System Engineering business unit one of the market leaders for engine and transmission assembly and body-in-white lines. Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger: “ThyssenKrupp has systematically leveraged its synergies as a diversified industrial group.”
The Group is utilizing strengths that other companies do not have on this scale. With materials, component and manufacturing specialists all working together, InCar plus solutions have a high degree of maturity and can be integrated quickly into automotive production. Dr. Karsten Kroos, CEO of the Components Technology business area: “As development cycles for new models become ever shorter, every month counts. The production readiness of our solutions gives our customers an important edge in terms of time and cost.”
Customers also benefit in terms of sustainability: Life cycle analyses have been drawn up for the InCar plus innovations that provide transparency not only into emissions during driving, but also into the environmental impact over the entire life cycle of the products, from raw material extraction to production and use to recycling. With InCar plus, OEMs know from the outset how the use of a certain material or part will affect the carbon footprint of their vehicles. In addition to improvements in the powertrain, weight reduction makes an important contribution to this: “Above all because it is ecologically sound, economically viable and thus feasible even for the smaller size vehicle classes that make up the majority of all cars,” says Dr. Heribert Fischer, member of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG.
The InCar plus team will now present its innovations to auto manufacturers in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The first production order for an InCar plus innovation has already been received.
ThyssenKrupp has around 160,000 employees in nearly 80 countries working with passion and expertise to develop technologies, products and services for sustainable progress. Their skills and commitment are the basis of our success. In fiscal year 2012/2013 ThyssenKrupp generated sales of around €39 billion.
For us, innovations and technical progress are key factors in managing global growth and using finite resources in a sustainable way. With our engineering expertise in the areas of “Mechanical”, “Plant” and “Materials”, we enable our customers to gain an edge in the global market and manufacture innovative products in a cost- and resource-friendly way.
