November 2016 Material Qualification in the Automotive Industry Shashank Modi For citations and reference to this publication, please use the following: Modi, Shashank. Material Qualification in the Automotive Industry. Center for Automotive Research, Ann Arbor, MI. November 2016. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author would like to thank the industry experts who were instrumental in helping Center for Automotive Research produce this white paper. Their willingness to share insights and provide thoughtful feedback was an important contribution, and is greatly appreciated. In addition, our thanks to the participants of the CAR Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM) for their interest and guidance in finding opportunities to improve the new material qualification process. The author would also like to thank the CAR team, especially Dr. Jay Baron, Dr. Manish Mehta, Mark Stevens, and Brian Esterberg who contributed research and content to this study. The industry experts who contributed to this research are: General Motors Company – Curt D. Horvath BMW Group – Florian Schek, Martin Pehlke National Institute of Standards and Technology - Dr. Jim Fekete Arconic – Gregory Fata Kaiser Aluminum – Doug Richman Big River Steel – Jody Shaw United States Steel Corporation – Lynda Crall, Dr. Ming F. Shi, Dr. Brandon M. Hance, Bernie Swanson, Michael Davenport The Nanosteel Company, Inc. – Craig Parsons Dana Inc. – Dr. Eve S. Steigerwalt American Chemistry Council – Gina Oliver, Sandra McClelland, Matthew Marks, Janet Sawgle Covestro LLC – David Loren Dow Automotive – Mansour Mirdamadi, Dr. Dan Sophiea, Allan James Solvay – Dr. Girish Grover Henkel – Kevin Woock Shashank Modi Research Engineer 3005 Boardwalk, Suite 200 Ann Arbor, MI 48108 www.cargroup.org The Center for Automotive Research’s mission is to educate, inform and advise stakeholders, policy makers, and the general public on critical issues facing the automotive industry, and the industry’s impact on the U.S. economy and society. CAR produces industry-driven research and analyses; develops forecasts; fosters dialogue and convenes forums; and publicly disseminates our research through conferences, events, and the media. CAR receives funding from a variety of sources including federal, state and local government contracts, corporate research, affiliate and foundation grants, and conference revenues. More information is available at www.cargroup.org. ©Center for Automotive Research 2016 P a g e | 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgment .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Contents ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 2 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Push for New Materials and Need for Material Qualifications..................................................................... 4 The Material Qualification Process ............................................................................................................... 6 Material Qualification Timeline .................................................................................................................. 18 Benchmarking with the Aerospace Industry ............................................................................................... 20 OEM Philosophy and Risk Management ..................................................................................................... 21 Summary and Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 22 Future Work ................................................................................................................................................ 24 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Examples of material properties required for material qualification ........................................... 10 Table 2: Examples of additional specifications required for plastics .......................................................... 11 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Trends in Automotive Material Technology .................................................................................. 5 Figure 2: Generic Material Qualification Process Flowchart ........................................................................ 8 Figure 3: Plastics and Polymer Composites Technology Roadmap for Automotive Markets Strategy ...... 13 Figure 4: Digital Certification Process ......................................................................................................... 15 Figure 5: Material Qualification v/s Vehicle Development Timeline .......................................................... 19 ©Center for Automotive Research 2016 P a g e | 2 INTRODUCTION The recent emphasis on fuel economy is expected to accelerate the evolutionary rate of introducing lightweight materials. CAR’s Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM) group identified material qualification as one of the major barriers to faster introduction of lightweight materials in an automobile along with other barriers such as joining technology, traditional paint-shops, availability of simulation tools, and global supply-chain. The purpose of this whitepaper is to highlight opportunities to reduce the material qualification barrier for faster introduction of advanced lightweighting materials such as high strength steel, aluminum, plastics and polymer composites and magnesium into the vehicle. Material qualification is a process that takes place between a material supplier and the customer (usually an automaker for tier 1 suppliers). The objective is to make sure that the materials meet the requirements set by the customer. The qualification process involves a series of iterative steps until the customer approves the supplier’s material to be considered in its future products. Material qualification differs from material development and material verification. Material development is the development of a new material not in existence before. This may be triggered by product or market requirements. The development process is followed by the qualification process. Material verification, on the other hand, is the process of making sure that the material used is the right one. For this study, Automotive experts working with material suppliers and OEMs, who are involved at various stages of the qualification process were interviewed. The titles of these subject matter experts range from material engineer to technical specialist, and product manager to vice president. This paper summarizes the interviews and discussions conducted on the topic by the CAR team to document the material qualification process and identify opportunities to facilitate faster introduction of new materials. The project was driven by CALM which is a working group comprised of more than 30 material producers and fabricators. The purpose of the coalition is to support the cost-effective integration of mixed materials to achieve significant reduction in vehicle mass through the collaborative efforts of the materials sector and automotive manufacturers. CALM contributors played an important role in this research paper. The CALM meetings served as an opportunity for CAR researchers to clarify the challenges of transitioning from conventional to an automotive lightweighting materials supply chain. Many CALM participants gave generous time through interviews to further refine the direction of this research. These interviews provided a rich source of information on the materials, processing and fabricating technologies. ©Center for Automotive Research 2016 P a g e | 3 PUSH FOR NEW MATERIALS AND NEED FOR MATERIAL QUALIFICATIONS New materials with better performance characteristics are introduced into the vehicle for various reasons, but primarily for improving crashworthiness, noise and vibration, overall cost, and fuel economy. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the joint final rule1 in 2012 extending the National Program to further improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2017 through 2025. The rule established a requirement of a combined fleet-wide fuel economy of 40.3-41.0 mpg for 2021 and 48.7-49.7 mpg for 2025.2 EPA’s GHG standards, are projected to require 163 grams/mile of carbon dioxide (CO2) in model year 2025 (equivalent to 54.5 mpg if the vehicles were to meet this CO2 level solely though improvements in fuel efficiency). To meet the regulatory fuel economy requirements and improve performance, automakers will need to lightweight their vehicles. Estimates indicate that a 10 percent reduction in mass can result in approximately a 6 percent increase in fuel economy. Earlier CAR research “Assessing the Fleet-wide Material Technology and Costs to Lightweight Vehicles”3 shows that the rate of material technology improvement (growth in use of lightweight materials) between