TRAVERSE CITY ? Jaguar Land Rover this week was named the winner of the 2014 Altair Enlighten Award, the second year the Troy software company has honored auto makers that achieve significant weight reductions in vehicles.
Jaguar, one of 11 nominees, received the award this week during the Center for Automotive Research?s Management Briefing Seminars at the Grand Traverse Resort.
The new lightweight vehicle Range Rover body created through Jaguar?s holistic approach reduced the body?s weight to 658 pounds, compared with the previous body weight of 1096 pounds, a 40 percent weight reduction. Significant savings were also achieved for the chassis reducing its weight by 154 pounds and the powertrain by 287 pounds.
?This holistic approach to vehicle lightweighting and CO2 reduction has yielded an aggressive and highly impressive methodology that is enabling the creation of new and exciting vehicle architectures,? said David Mason, Vice President, Global Automotive for Altair. ?This year?s nominations represented a diverse range of solutions to meet the lightweighting challenges while still delivering exceptional products to the market.?
In an interview, Mason said the weight reductions were achieved by using Altair?s OptiStruct – Structural Analysis Solver (linear and non-linear); market-leading solution for structural design and optimization.
Dow Automotive Systems was named runner up for its Betamate bonding solution and its application on Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks.
The other 2014 Award nominees were:
Continental Structural Plastics – Composite outer body panels for Chevrolet Corvette
Dow Automotive Systems – Crash durable adhesive for Chevrolet Corvette
Grede Holdings LLC – Lightweight spring hanger bracket casting for Freightliner
Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. – Premium lightweight vehicle architectures
LANXESS – Highly reinforced polyamide front end carrier for the Skoda Octavia
MAHLE North America – Lightweight connecting rod for Polaris Indian Motorcycle
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. – Rear engine mounting bracket for the Maruti Alto
Multimatic Inc. – Steel front lower control arm for the Chevrolet Impala
SABIC – Optimized instrument panel for the Chrysler Jeep Cherokee
Shiloh Industries, Inc. – Acoustic panel laminate for the Cadillac ATS
The award?s judging committee ? chaired by Dr. Jay Baron, President and CEO of CAR and director of CAR?s Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials ? comprised worldwide experts from the automotive community, who assessed the nominations and selected the overall winner.
