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Automotive

Direct Part Marking Replaces Labels, Saves Supplier $1 Million

A major Tier 1 automotive supplier was required by its customers to mark each of a family of plastic body panels that it produced with a 2D Data Matrix bar code. In the past,...

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Test & Measurement

To Serve and Protect

Automotive security concerns have rapidly evolved from physical equipment like door locks to cybersecurity concerns for connected vehicles. Developers are now deploying encryption, standards, and other techniques in...

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Articles
Automotive

Automotive HMIs Aren’t Just for Driving Any More

Most autonomous driving discussions focus on the sensors that inform vehicle controls and the techniques those controls will use to make decisions and take action. But as autonomous...

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Transportation

It’s ‘Do-or-Die Time’ to Plan for Open Platforms

Prof. Ola Henfridsson has a curt warning for the European motor industry: “It must accept that cars have to become open platforms for digital technology.”

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Transportation

Plotting the Vehicle Autonomy Revolution

Larry Burns has spent much of his 40-year career peering far beyond the horizon in search of future-mobility solutions. As General Motors’ Vice President of Research & Development and...

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Transportation

Future ICEs: What Comes After 2025?

Vehicle engineers and planners have been breathing a bit easier lately, generally confident that the industry will meet the upcoming U.S. CAFE and Euro 6 vehicle CO2 regulations without excessive...

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Automotive

Faster, Lighter: Lotus Reveals Its Quickest Road Car Yet

With an all-new lightweight composite bodyshell, supercharged 336-kW (450-hp) V6 engine, and an open cockpit without windshield or doors, Lotus’s stark new no-nonsense 3-Eleven is...

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Product Briefs
Electronics & Computers

Compact Tire-Pressure Monitoring

Freescale Semiconductor’s FXTH87 tire-pressure monitoring system family provides low-power consumption, extended battery life, and functional integration in a compact, 0.3-g (0.01-oz), 7 x 7 x 2.2-mm (0.28 x...

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Automotive

Mitsubishi Puts NVH in 2016 Outlander's Crosshairs

Two years after the third-generation Mitsubishi Outlander arrived in the U.S. market, the crossover utility vehicle was revised for the 2016 MY with new signature front-end styling and...

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Materials

Growing Natural Tire Rubber in North America

Despite ongoing advances in polymer chemistry and biochemistry, natural rubber made from rubber trees continues to be crucial to the global tire industry. This is because synthetic rubber often...

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Technology Report
Communications

SAE and IEEE Join Forces to Explore Potential IoT Standards

SAE International and IEEE are jointly exploring a standards framework related to the rapidly emerging Internet of Things (IoT)—the billions of interconnected “smart” devices...

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Technology Report
Materials

Aluminum Frame Rails, New Alloy Castings from Alcoa Help Cut 2500 Lb from Tractor-Trailers

A custom tractor-trailer technology demonstrator built by Alcoa is outfitted with various current and “soon-to-be-available” aluminum solutions...

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Global Vehicles
Automotive

2016 Camaro: GM Unleashes Its Lighter, Faster Mustang Competitor

During the early phase of 2016 Chevrolet Camaro development, Chief Engineer Al Oppenheiser one day found himself in a meeting with a group of GM Powertrain engineers he’d...

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Product Briefs
Automotive

3D Printers

Old World Labs introduces two 3D printers in its MC Series, delivering precision and accuracy with improved resolution. The MC-1 and MC-2 are available through a service plan subscription, allowing users to upgrade the hardware as...

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News
Research Lab

Johnson Controls Invests in LTU Research Lab

The newly named Johnson Controls Vehicle Engineering Systems Laboratory recognizes the supplier’s investment in a Lawrence Technological University (LTU) lab that will serve as a vital link to...

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Green Design & Manufacturing

New Technology for Exhausting Jobs

As the Chief Technologist for Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies (FECT) in North America, Andy Pontius leads a product development team of 35 technical specialists. They are the application link for...

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Materials

Nanotube Additive

Zyvex Technologies announces the Zyvex Nanotube Technology (ZNT) product family. Available online, ZNT is a polymer-modified carbon nanotube additive for a range of host matrices including epoxies, elastomers, thermoplastics,...

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Technology Report
Propulsion

Audi Evolves the Miller Cycle in Its New 2.0-L Spark-Ignition Engine

Audi’s next generation A4 due later this year will be the first model to receive a new 2.0-L engine that takes gasoline spark-ignition technology a step further towards...

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Automotive

Controlling Engines with Virtual Sensors

The most efficient engines today, gasoline or diesel, are complex machines, with variable valve timing and lift, direct injection, turbocharging, and various flavors of exhaust gas recirculation...

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Manufacturing & Prototyping

Jaguar Turns Marketing Speak into Engineering Reality for XE

“We have a very clear definition of our brand’s DNA, and if you drove all our products consecutively, you would be able to experience that through every one,” Jaguar Land...

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News
Motion Control

Stability Control Boosts Motorcycle Safety

As happened in cars, electronic safety technology for motorcycles is tracing a course starting with anti-lock brakes, continuing through traction control, and arriving eventually at full electronic stability control.

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Articles
Imaging

Cameras Look to Go the Distance

Forward-looking cameras are quickly becoming standard features on cars, improving safety and convenience. Engineering teams are burning the midnight oil to improve distance capabilities and safety while...

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Power

Balancing GDI Fuel Economy and Emissions

Increasing concerns about airborne soot, or particulate matter (PM), are translating into vehicle emissions regulations. One of the more stringent of these, the Euro 6c, is scheduled to phase-in...

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Transportation

New XF Moves to Jaguar's Aluminum Architecture

Jaguar's best-selling model, the XF, is moving from a steel body to the aluminum-intensive monocoque architecture used on the XE and XJ. It's one of the latest steps the luxury car maker has...

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Manufacturing & Prototyping

Lexus Sharpens Best-Selling RX for 2016

The Lexus RX luxury crossover has been the make's best seller, accounting for 25-30% of sales, and the 2016 model introduced at the 2015 New York Auto Show displays a new styling treatment that...

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Global Vehicles
Transportation

Nissan's Maxima Has Flowing Sports Car Lines, Upgraded 3.5-L V6 and CVT

A flagship car typically isn't the top seller, but it does set a tone for a product line. Nissan's 2016 Maxima, introduced at the 2015 New York Auto Show, put a strong...

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Articles
Automotive

Cadillac Pursues Aluminum/steel Mix for New CT6 Luxury Sedan

Next fall, Cadillac’s new top-of-the-line model, the CT6 sedan, rolls out of General Motors’ big Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant and onto dealership sales floors nationwide...

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Product Briefs
Software

Vehicle Dynamics Software

Mechanical Simulation Corp.’s CarSim 9.0 vehicle dynamics software upgrade features major enhancements to the math models, visualization tools, database, and overall architecture. In version 9, CarSim makes it even...

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Q&A
Power

Green-Lighting Ford's "Clean" Technologies

As Ford Motor Co.'s Global Director of Vehicle Electrification and Infrastructure, Michael Tinskey eats, sleeps, and breathes sustainable mobility. His small group of "clean technologists" are linked...

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