Mexican Media Brands
JLR Uses Aerospace Sensors to Test Lightweight Materials
New metals and advanced composites will be subject to extreme conditions
#aluminum
Share
Land Rover Defender during testing (Image: JLR)
As part of its quest to reduce the weight of future vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover is using advanced sensor technologies to measure how new metals and composite materials perform under extreme conditions.
Samples of the materials will be built into aerospace-grade sensors positioned around the vehicles. The tests will evaluate:
- Galvanic corrosion of mixed materials
- Single metal corrosion
- Air humidity and temperature
- Contaminates such as dirt and salt
- Surface temperature
Tough Conditions
The tests will be conducted over the next two years in North America. JLR describes the 250,000-mile regiment as “some of the world’s most extreme physical conditions.”
The all-weather, all-terrain program will include harsh and corrosive conditions through snow, sand and water.
Data gathered from the testing will be shared with the carmaker’s U.K. product development team to allow them to accurately forecast the future behavior of the materials. In particular, the program will evaluate how lightweight body materials fare in terms of durability and maintaining a high-quality finish.
Lightweighting Reality Partners
The new research program is part of JLR’s ambitious Destination Zero vision to completely eliminate emissions, accidents and congestion.
The carmaker also is teaming up with various partners as part of an aluminum consortium and the recent Reality project that aims to reduce the weight of in-vehicle electronics by 60% through the use of recycled aluminum.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Jeeps Modified for Moab
On Easter morning in Moab, Utah, when the population of that exceedingly-hard-to-get-to town in one of the most beautiful settings on Earth has more than doubled, some people won’t be hunting for Easter eggs, but will be trying to get a good look at one of the vehicles six that Jeep has prepared for real-life, fast-feedback from the assembled at the annual Easter Jeep Safari.
-
Lotus Is Light
Although there aren’t a huge number of Lotus vehicles rolling around in the U.S.—according to Left-Lane.com, in 2015 Lotus sold 80 cars in the U.S., a number so low that there is not much that puts it into context (e.g., there were 1,009 Lamborghinis sold in the U.S.)—but small numbers is something that the Hethel, U.K.-based sports car manufacturer is working toward—at least when it is comes to lowering the mass of its products.
-
Aluminum Engine Block Casting Improved
.
