FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT

BY GARY MCVAY

NATT DIRECTOR

The second issue of the NATT Quarterly brings us an opportunity to update you on what has been happening at NATT—and there's plenty to talk about.

For starters, we're pleased to report that we're continuing to increase the number of programs underway. Read on for details about them. But one project we're really excited about is on the horizon right now. It's an opportunity to help the light truck industry in America.

As any drive down the highway will attest to, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks are incredibly popular. The downside is that these vehicles guzzle gas and are falling short of Federal fuel-economy standards. Fines—millions of dollars of fines—could be imposed on Big Three automakers if they don't improve the average gas mileage of their pickups and SUVs.

Sound like a job for NATT? It just might be. We're in the process of helping develop aluminum frames for light trucks--frames that would lighten the vehicle and improve fuel efficiency without compromising performance.

NATT remains committed, as always, to developing the lightweight, fuel efficient and recyclable car of the future. But we'd also like to do our part for the car of the near future—the one that may be in your driveway five years from now.

NATT Gears Up for Fall Forum

Mark your calendar for Thursday, October 29. That's when NATT is scheduled to hold a forum at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on Seattle's waterfront. The daylong event is expected to draw professionals from all over the country who want to improve vehicles of the future through materials and systems development. Representatives from the Big Three automakers, light materials industries, truck manufacturers, the rail industry and electric utility companies will join university researchers at the conference.

"Our purpose is to bring together producers of lightweight materials with the users of these materials in the car, truck, rail and aircraft industries to define research needs," said NATT Program Director, Gary McVay.

The forum will begin with a review of progress to date and industry assessments of future research needs. In the afternoon, participants will move into breakout sessions to develop NATT 's roadmap for the future.

"During last year's conference we set the stage for program development associated with the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). We developed five focus areas for our research and now have several successfully funded programs underway," said McVay. "The next task is to focus NATT expansion into the heavy vehicle arena."

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. is organizing the forum.

At the Crossroads of Government and Business

IThat's how Bill Madia describes NATT's niche. As director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Madia knows that NATT has to walk in the worlds of both government and business. He's given a lot of thought to how NATT can serve both well.

"Government plays a rightful role in establishing what national standards should be for the next generation of vehicles—standards that protect the environment," Madia says. "When the government says it's in our interest to conserve fuel, pollute less and recycle more, we as a national lab are the R&D arm of national policy."

How can we achieve lighter-weight cars? How can we achieve higher fuel efficiency? Madia says in asking those questions, the Department of Energy is asking national labs to solve tough technical problems. NATT wants to be at the forefront of solving them, Madia says.

Madia says Battelle often plays the "honest broker" role in dealing with Detroit and Washington, D.C. "It's a role we relish and play well," he said. "We must represent both sides. Having Battelle run as an objective, independent entity—but with a commercial

face—means we can knock on the doors of the car manufacturers in Detroit and have some credibility. It also means that public investment in R&D has maximum commercial impact."

While NATT is uniquely positioned to be the link between DOE and the Big Three, Madia says he realizes that the involvement of other national labs is crucial. With technology development and transfer happening at mouse-click speed today, "almost no one has a lock on anything anymore, so we better draw on these resources," Madia said.

OAAT Director Lauds NATT Expertise

The Department of Energy's Director of the Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies, Dr. Pandit Patil, inspected facilities and reviewed NATT programs during a recent visit to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. He and Materials Manager Joseph Carpenter met with Battelle Materials Sciences staff associated with the NATT program.

Patil, who is also vice-chairman of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), representing government agency interests in the organization, believes NATT to be a very important concept. PNGV must achieve a 40 percent weight reduction in road vehicles to meet its other goals, according to Patil.

"The Northwest has a very important, technology-rich industry which has built lightweight structures for airplanes. They know what it takes to get the weight out," he said. "NATT could be extremely valuable if we can make its materials expertise more available to PNGV."

Other projects of value to the PNGV program now underway at NATT include fuel cell reformer work and emissions reduction on compression ignition direct-injection engines, Patil said.

"The aerospace industry, the national laboratory and other Northwest industries working together will help assure that useful concepts will continue to emerge from NATT," he said.

NATT presently receives the majority of its funding through DOE's Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies. DOE is the single largest of the seven government agencies supporting PNGV

Magnesium Projects Could Break New Ground

Three projects in the magnesium focus area are scheduled to begin in August. Russ Jones, who heads up the focus area, says he's excited about all of them because they could break new ground in the ways magnesium is produced, formed and recycled.

In order to use more lightweight magnesium in the car of the future, it has to be produced at a lower cost. The first project explores reducing the cost of primary magnesium by using a new membrane technology.

"If it works, it will be quite revolutionary in terms of what it could do for magnesium production," Jones said. "But it's also a high-risk endeavor because it's never been done before. The physical process being tried—using a unique membrane to separate magnesium from oxygen—has worked for silicon and iron. This research will determine if it will work for magnesium." Most of the work on this project will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The second project looks at new, improved methods for forming magnesium alloy components. Right now, components are typically die cast, which means the metal is poured into a mold where it solidifies. Now, NATT will evaluate a semi-solid molding process with the trademarked name "Thixomolding." The project will be done in conjunction with the Thixomat Corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

According to Jones, the benefit of making car components this way is that they could be made from a wider range of alloys. Plus, they'll have better properties—increased strength with the same density as die-cast parts.

The third project aims to make magnesium easier to recycle. Jones says one of PNGV's goals for the car of the future is to make it 80 percent recyclable. So, as more magnesium is used in cars to make them lighter and more fuel efficient, the recycling capability for magnesium must be increased.

Case Western Reserve University and Garfield Alloys, both in Cleveland, Ohio, submitted the winning proposal for the recycling project.

And finally, a word about titanium—Jones' other focus area. Titanium is another lightweight metal that holds promise for the car of the future. "Santa Fe Alloys, in San Jose, N.M., is going to be using some unique chemistry to reduce titanium tetrachloride into titanium."

Jones says he was pleased with the quality of the proposals he reviewed and it was hard work narrowing them down. "There were some projects we would have liked to have funded, but the reality is, we can't do all of them."

A Little Off the Back. . .the Sides and the Front, Adds Up to a Lot.

If you add up the weight of the windshield, the side glass and the back windows, the average family sedan is packing about 100 pounds of glass. Mohammed Khaleel, head of NATT's glass focus area, thinks that load can be cut in half. After all, a lighter car is more fuel-efficient. To that end, NATT has entered a 3-year CRADA with Visteon Automotive Systems of Detroit, a major supplier of glass to the Big Three automakers.

"We're going to look at two alternatives," said Khaleel. "One is to make the glass thinner, about one-third the thickness of the glass on today's cars. The other is to make a bi-layer glass, which is glass on the outside and plastic on the inside."

According to Khaleel, either glazing system would have to be as safe as today's glass. "If a stone flies off the road, the windshield must be able to withstand the impact. Also, the rigidity must be there. So, we must experiment to see if the car rolls over in an accident, whether the glass still prevents the roof from crushing in on the passengers. Right now, glass prevents the top from completely collapsing."

Beyond safety issues, a new glazing system could offer better thermal properties. Khaleel says if new glass blocks infrared light from the sun better, people inside the car will stay cooler. And that means the car of the future could be equipped with a smaller, lighter cooling system.

We plan to keep you updated on NATT happenings through NATT Quarterly. If you have any news we should know about, contact Wendy Stidmon @ (509) 375-3676.

Webmaster: Suzanne Niemeyer
Last Updated: June 24, 2002