Audi: Pioneer in Aluminium

Press Release

Audi and Weight-saving Construction - from Pioneer in Aluminium to High-volume Production

• In 1994 the Audi A8 and its Audi Space Frame (ASF) concept established a new landmark in automobile manufacturing
• In 2000 Audi launched the A2, the first aluminium high-volume car model to reach the market
• Systematic weight-saving construction also means using innovative materials in combination with others

Lightweight construction has been given all the weight such an important topic deserves at Audi: for 17 years now, Audi has been undertaking intensive research and development work into aluminium as a material, and has built up unrivalled know-how in using this lightweight metal. Dr. Werner Mischke, AUDI AG's Director of Technical Development, comments: "Our lead over competitors in this area is at least five years." Among the products that provide evidence of this are the Audi A8 and the Audi A2, two cars that sell successfully and have all-aluminium bodywork. But Audi's use of weight-saving materials grows all the time in other ways as well, tailored blanks, plastics or magnesium for add-on components and applications in the engine, transmission or running-gear areas. The policy can be summed up as "intelligent use of mixed construction principles to reduce vehicle weight". Background The notion of building lightweight cars with the aid of innovative materials goes back many years. As early as 1913, NSU produced its 8/24 car with a body entirely made of aluminium. In 1923, Audi announced a six-cylinder all-alloy engine. In the same year, it experimented with a streamlined aluminium car body for its Type K model. Later, in 1954, the Auto Union looked into the possibility of saving weight by using plastic for the car's body. In the years that followed, weight-saving construction remained one of the key competence areas of the Ingolstadt-based automobile manufacturer. In 1980, for instance, Audi developed an upper midsize research vehicle using plastic elements as body reinforcements. This was followed in 1984 by the legendary Audi Sport quattro, which had a high-tech outer skin made from a composite fibre material. 1984 was also the year in which Audi began to study aluminium intensively again; in due course, an aluminium body based on the Audi 100 was developed. At the 1991 German Motor Show (the 'IAA') in Frankfurt, the four-ring badge was seen on the Audi quattro Spyder, a sports coupé that was received most enthusiastically, much of the sensation it caused being due to its aluminium body. Only a short time later, at the Tokyo Motor Show, another futuristic sports-car design study was unveiled, the Audi Avus quattro, with an eye-catching body in aluminium polished to a high gloss. Close observers of the automobile scene judged these exciting new moves to be clear evidence that Audi was planning to make greater use of aluminium in its production models. As it transpired, a partnership had been in existence for some years already with the Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa), aimed at developing an aluminium-bodied car to production readiness. The policy was formulated as follows: a systematic weight-saving construction concept, particularly as far as the car's body was concerned, would lower fuel consumption significantly without calling for any sacrifices in comfort, performance or safety. Audi Space Frame and A8 In the autumn of 1993 the German Motor Show was once again chosen to reveal the results, in the form of the Audi ASF aluminium design study. This vehicle made use of entirely new construction principles that amounted to far more than mere substitution of aluminium for steel as the structural material. The Audi Space Frame principle created a high-strength aluminium framework into which the larger sheet aluminium elements were integrated and performed a load-bearing function. The extruded aluminium sections o the frame were linked by pressure die-cast nodal elements. New manufacturing technologies had to be developed for the new construction principle, and also improved light alloys and process techniques. In addition to welding and adhesive bonding, self-piercing rivets were used as a joining technique for the first time in the automobile manufacturing industry. More than 40 patents and patent applications were ample evidence of the sheer novelty of the ASF concept. In 1994, at the Geneva Motor Show, the ASF concept car was translated into series-production form: the Audi A8 with its all-aluminium body celebrated its world première - a milestone in automobile construction. The Aluminium Center The A8 is built at the company's plant in Neckarsulm. This location in the German State of Baden-Württemberg soon established itself as the centre of Audi's aluminium know-how. At the end of 1994, the Group grouped together its competences in weight-saving construction and invested the equivalent of some eight million Euro in the construction of an Aluminium Centre. This now employs more than a hundred people, who are solely concerned with the development of production vehicle built in aluminium. Dr. Wolfgang Ruch, the Director of the Aluminium Centre, explains: "We are particularly concerned with optimising the material properties, components and processes used in high-volume production according to the ASF technological principle. Suppliers, colleges of advanced technology and other institutes are all involved in this activity."