Automobile industry

In this chapter I present some well known historic factors of past events and how they affect us today. In addition, I present a simple model of how the automobile industry develops and designs a product and the opportunities present for a chemist s involvement. 

The Renault-Nissan Alliance collaboration with AFCC as a technology partner is mainly focused on jointly developing a common fuel cell system for use in separate mass market cars from 2017. Honda and GM signed a collaboration agreement in 

22 Toyota FCEV (Photo courtesy of fuel cell today) 

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Alkylated phenol derivatives are used as raw materials for the production of resins, novolaks (alcohol-soluble resins of the phenol—formaldehyde type), herbicides, insecticides, antioxidants, and other chemicals. The synthesis of 2,6-xylenol [576-26-1] h.a.s become commercially important since PPO resin, poly(2,6-dimethyl phenylene oxide), an engineering thermoplastic, was developed (114,115). The demand for (9-cresol and 2,6-xylenol (2,6-dimethylphenol) increased further in the 1980s along with the growing use of epoxy cresol novolak (ECN) in the electronics industries and poly(phenylene ether) resin in the automobile industries. The ECN is derived from o-cresol, and poly(phenylene ether) resin is derived from 2,6-xylenol. 

Gas Fluxing. The methyl borate azeotrope is used as a gaseous flux for welding and brazing. The Gas Flux Co., Elyria, Ohio, manufactures the methyl borate azeotrope for their own use. The azeotrope acts as a volatile source of boric oxide and is introduced directly into the gas stream as a flux for the surfaces to be joined in the welding process. The European automobile industry is the primary user of this process, though there may be some usage for this purpose in the United States. 

The CASS Test. In the copper-accelerated acetic acid salt spray (CASS) test (42), the positioning of the test surface is restricted to 15 2°, and the salt fog corrosivity is increased by increasing temperature and acidity, pH about 3.2, along with the addition of cupric chloride dihydrate. The CASS test is used extensively by the U.S. automobile industry for decorative nickel—chromium deposits, but is not common for other deposits or industries. Exposure cycle requirements are usually 22 hours, rarely more than 44 hours. Another corrosion test, now decreasing in use, for decorative nickel—chromium finishes is the Corrodkote test (43). This test utilizes a specific corrosive paste combined with a warm humidity cabinet test. Test cycles are usually 20 hours. 

Supplier partnerships or alliances have been used to control the cost of procurement. They are based on methods developed in Japan, initially in the automobile industry. These methods have been extended into the process industry and for the purchase of such items as compressor trains. Generally as originally conceived, they were intended mainly for commodity items. By using some innovative approaches, the concept of partnerships or alliances has been extended into the purchase of custom equipment. 

Higher specifications, particularly by the automobile industries, have led to their replacement by rubbers of higher performance in terms of heat and oil resistance. 

Better resistance to many chemicals associated with the automobile industry. This covers not only commonly used automobile fuels, oils and greases, but detergents, alcohols, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons and alkaline chemicals. 

Natural rubber can be obtained from the sap of a number of plants and trees, the most common source is the Hevea brasiliensis tree. Although natural rubber was known in Central and South America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, the first use as an adhesive was established in a patent dated in 1891. As rubber became an important part of the industrial revolution, the rubber adhesives market grew in importance. To comply with the increasing demand on natural rubber materials, plantations of Hevea brasiliensis trees were established in southeast Asia in the early 20th Century, mainly to supply the demand from the automobile industry. 

Cellulose Acetate Butyrate H F F Molded with plasticizers Excellent moisture resistance-metallized sheets and film, automobile industry... 

One of the key factors which make plastics attractive for engineering applications is the possibility of property enhancement through fibre reinforcement. Composites produced in this way have enabled plastics to become acceptable in, for example, the demanding aerospace and automobile industries. Currently in the USA these industries utilise over 1(X),000 tonnes of reinforced plastics out of a total consumption of over one million tonnes. 

While these and many other contemporary quality policies would not need to be publicized 20 or so years ago, policy statements are not something new to the automobile industry. The General Motors of the 1920s under the direction of Alfred P Sloan used corporate policy as a means of coordinating the efforts of several divisions. GM s quality policy was to build quality products sold at fair prices and in setting up an Executive Gommittee Sloan wrote on the subject of quality, A carefully designed policy should be... 

There are lots of regulations and no guarantees of finding them all. However, you can now search through libraries on the Internet and consult bureaus, trade associations, and government departments to discover those that apply to you. Ignorance of the law, they say, is no excuse. So here are a few consequences related to the automobile industry that you may rather avoid ... 

ANFIA Associatzione Nazionale Fra Industrie Automobilistiche (National Association of Automobile Industries)... 

VDA Verband der Automobilindustrie (German Automobile Industry Association)... 

In 1996, consumption in the western world was 14.2 tonnes of rhodium and 3.8 tonnes of iridium. Unquestionably the main uses of rhodium (over 90%) are now catalytic, e.g. for the control of exhaust emissions in the car (automobile) industry and, in the form of phosphine complexes, in hydrogenation and hydroformylation reactions where it is frequently more efficient than the more commonly used cobalt catalysts. Iridium is used in the coating of anodes in chloralkali plant and as a catalyst in the production of acetic acid. It also finds small-scale applications in specialist hard alloys. 

Power and torque are directly related. An automobile engine develops power when producing a torque on the dnvetrain. Generally, the owner of an automobile is more interested in power than torque. Flowever, technicians in the automobile industry usually evaluate the performance in terms of torque... 

The first commercially successful pneumatic tire was developed in 1888 in Belfast by the Scottish veterinarian John Boyd Dunlop primarily to improve the riding comfort of bicycles. Dunlop also showed, albeit qualitatively, that his air-inflated pneumatic took less effort to rotate than did the solid rubber tires in use at that time. His qualitative tests were the first known rolling resistance experiments on pneumatic tires. Due to this significant reduction in rolling loss, many professional cyclists in Britain and Ireland adopted air-inflated tires for their bicycles by the early 1890s. Pneumatics for the nascent automobile industry soon followed. 

The polymer field is versatile and fast growing, and many new polymers are continually being produced or improved. The basic chemistry principles involved in polymer synthesis have not changed much since the beginning of polymer production. Major changes in the last 70 years have occurred in the catalyst field and in process development. These improvements have a great impact on the economy. In the elastomer field, for example, improvements influenced the automobile industry and also related fields such as mechanical goods and wire and cable insulation. 

For the U.S., the new EPA rules will limit sulfur in gasoline to 30 ppm, phased between 2004 and 2006. The automobile industry has made a strong case for lower sulfur because of its effect on the catalytic converter. The converter has the same catalyst as the refinery reformer and it is poisoned just as easily by sulfur. 

Table 9.1 includes estimates of potential savings published in 1971. The variations in the ratio of savings to costs are in part due to differences in the extent to which severely corrosive environments are characteristic of the industry concerned. However, the differences also reflect the uneven level of corrosion awareness when the estimates were made, and as significant improvements in practices have occurred, the detailed figures do not entirely represent the current situation. For example, corrosion of cars is now a much smaller problem than it was in 1970. The automobile industry is also an... 

The solution was applied to the surface of cold-rolled steel, dip-galvanized steel sheet, and aluminum strip for degreasing and passivating in a single operation at 40°C for 90 s. The surfaces were then lacquered (85-100 pm thickness) and tested in a salt-spray test for 480 h without showing subsurface migration and blistering. The method is especially useful in the automobile industry for coated sheet [191]. 

Melamine fiber is mainly used in heat- and flame-resistant applications, especially in the manufacture of protective clothing for the iron, steel, and automobile industries, in aircraft and... 

Increasing price of crude oil has built up pressure on tire and automobile industry to develop low rolling-resistant tire with better traction. Combination of carbon and silica with coupling agent (dual filler technology) shows low RR with better traction and skid resistance in tire tread compound. Carbon black developed by plasma process and nanostructure black are other new significant developments in filler technology. 

Advances in the automobile industry are driving the research in the field of elastomers and the future research would be focused on the following aspects ... 

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