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May 8, 2008
Europe’s top innovation price for aluminum car frames
Car manufacturer Audi’s team of experts received the European Inventor of the Year 2008 Award earlier this week for revolutionising automotive manufacturing by making car frames lighter and safer through the use of aluminium.
Overcoming the old paradigm in car engineering that steel is the ultimate material of choice, Audi's team of inventors around Norbert Enning paved the way for the use of aluminium as a next-generation fabric which renders car frames not only lighter and slimmer, but also safer.
In 1993, Audi patented the aluminium car frame system, including respective methods of mass production. One year later, the automotive company introduced the world's first-ever mass-produced car with an all-aluminium body - the Audi A8. Since then, the frame system has been marketed as the Audi Space Frame (ASF) with major success and continuous improvements.
Direct benefits of the technology include better fuel efficiency, increased road handling, better cornering characteristics and ease of repair. Tests have proven that the frame's high rigidity also offers better crash protection than steel frames. In terms of durability, aluminium is the only corrosion-free material on the market. With a high degree of pliability, aluminium also offers designers more possibilities for shaping new, more efficient parts.
Since Audi opened up the possibilities of aluminium as car body material, other manufacturers have followed suit.
Read more and see a movie on the European Patent Office's website.
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Alcoa and the Audi Space Frame
The Audi Space Frame, the heart of aluminum-intensive vehicle designs like the A8 and S8, was developed in partnership with Alcoa. Read the story on the Alcoa.com website.
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