Ultium Cells LLC, General Motors’ joint venture with LG Chem to make electric vehicle (EV) battery cells, has started ground preparation for the future site of the Ultium battery cell manufacturing facility in Lordstown, Ohio.
During the pandemic, product development work on GM’s future EV and autonomous vehicle (AV) portfolios continues. The Cruise Origin was revealed in San Francisco, California, earlier this year, and production timing remains on track for the yet-to-be-revealed Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer EV, all powered by the Ultium battery system.
The Radox HPC500 cooled charging cable system allows continuous charging of electric vehicles (EVs) at 500A, even in high-temperature environments.
The HPC500 cable and connector updates the HPC400 family with an IP67 connector protection rating, an optional metering system, and replaceable contacts for longer service life.
Cooling capacity increases with a 24V unit, reducing operational temperatures of the power lines and enabling continuous 500A charging at environmental temperatures of up to 50°C (122°F).
The plug-and-play cooling unit is pre-filled with coolant and fits into existing charging stations, reducing installation time. It automatically adjusts ventilator and heat exchanger speeds, and the coolant pump automatically adjusts to achieve the most efficient performance. The system is 20% lighter than its predecessor and has more flexible cables.
As manufacturing resumes despite the continued spread of COVID-19, new rules limiting corporate travel are making it difficult for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to perform their typical spot checks on suppliers.
With co-located operations and just-in-time delivery, OEMs have adjusted to treating their supply chains like extensions of their internal capabilities. This crisis is going to indicate which suppliers they can fully trust in the future.
As we learn to navigate this impersonal, low-contact, teleconferencing world, trust is becoming the world’s most valuable resource. Although it’s always been important to have faith in suppliers and employees, the inability to regularly monitor behavior is very challenging for businesses that are used to having more control.
Managers have had to learn to trust that employees working from home aren’t playing video games (20 Zoom calls a day can offer assurance, but that doesn’t help productivity). Potential customers have to trust that the vehicles they want to buy match the ones in dealers’ ads. Plant managers have to trust service technicians when they say they’ve completed system upgrades and tests.
This uncertainty has created a massive opportunity for suppliers to prove their worth and strengthen their relationships with OEMs – simply performing up to historical standards will show that purchasing managers were right to choose the supplier before the crisis began.
Conversely, the penalties for failure will be extreme.
In early June, Ohio’s economy began reopening, and my daughter began driving her car for the first time in several months. Not surprisingly, one of her tires was close to flat. I told her to take it to the national chain dealer where we bought the tires to get it checked for a leak.
The store called later in the day, said they’d found and patched a small leak, and the car was ready. Immediately as she drove out of the parking lot, however, the low-pressure warning indicator lit up. We tested the tire at home, and sure enough, it was at 19psi, barely more than half its 35psi rating. I called the store, and the manager apologized, saying they checked the wrong tire.
Although mistakes happen and can be forgiven, this misstep showed the store can’t be trusted. In its literature, the company promised to perform thorough multi-point inspections of each vehicle before beginning service. They promised to reset sensor readings. And, they promised full inflation of all four tires, regardless of what service had been performed.
Had they simply followed their written, highly publicized policies, they would have inflated the proper tire and checked for leaks. Instead, I learned that their promises were hollow, and price premiums I’d paid for better service were likely wasted.
Companies that take the lack of supervision as license to cut corners will be discovered when parts fail inspection, or worse, years later when vehicle components fail. If a supplier proves that it can’t be trusted during a crisis, the odds of winning future work all but disappear.
Unattended operations technology; Specialized micrometers; Horizontal machining center
Automation in tool loading, combined with offline tool measurement, greatly reduces setup time, eliminates common data entry errors, and prohibits operators from inadvertently loading the wrong tools into the machine. The ToolConnect retrofit tool identification system, customized for specific tool load processes and requirements, uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags embedded in tool holders to automatically transfer tool presetter data to the machine control.
The system reads and writes tool measurement and tool life information to and from the tag, processing data at a custom read station. The user interface provides the operator visual tool measurement data and process flow. A failsafe option indexes to the correct magazine position to eliminate any errors.
The tool monitoring adaptive control (TMAC) system monitors tool wear in real-time, reacting instantaneously to wear and extreme conditions, stopping and expiring tools without operator intervention. TMAC can automatically reduce feed rate with high power cuts and increase the feed rate with low power cuts to maximize tool life and reduce cycle time up to 60%. Customers machining hard and difficult-to-machine materials will realize significant benefits with adaptive control. This system allows unattended operations, extends tool life, reduces cycle time, and prevents damage from extreme conditions.
AutoComp software eliminates manual calculation of tool and wear offsets after part measurement by processing measurement files from electronic gaging devices, automatically calculating and compensating offsets in the CNC control. Without operator intervention, the software calculates tool life and has customized macro-enabled alerts and data trending.
Micromar 40EWR micrometers feature integrated wireless technology for data transmission. Specialized units measure unique part features that standard micrometers can’t.
The micrometers have 10mm, high-contrast display, tolerance limits to qualify parts, a built-in reference system for setting zero position, and a hold function (digital lock) that freezes measured values for easy reading. All are IP65 rated.
Options include the MarConnect data output (USB, RS-232, or Digimatic) or integrated wireless data transmission capability. Wireless data transfers to an i-Stick on a computer and directly into Microsoft Excel or via a keyboard code into any Windows program. The micrometer confirms whether data transferred correctly.
The updated BA W06-22 horizontal CNC machining center features a 10% faster chip-to-chip time than the original machine and can reach up to 100m/min machining speeds.
The twin-spindle machine with wear-free linear motors has a 600mm spindle distance, making it suitable for machining large non-magnetic workpieces such as aluminum gearbox housings. The C One control panel, based on Siemens’ Sinumkerik system, improves machine operation with real-time multitouch capabilities. Increased haptic feedback supports more precise operation and mitigates input errors from water, dirt, or accidental wrist resting.
AWE Core OS, optimized for multi-core development, allows embedded audio engineers to move audio processing to the main system on a chip (SOC) without fear of running out of central processing unit (CPU) resources on a single core, potentially lowering component costs.
Audio Weaver is deployed across more than 40 million devices worldwide including cars made by Porsche, Tesla, Bugatti, and Volkswagen.
The RQ350 sealed charger for electric vehicles (EVs) and industrial machines is a 350W system. Suitable for pallet walkies, two-wheel e-mobility products, outdoor power equipment, and mobile aerial work platforms, the RQ350 is rugged and flexible. An IP66-sealed, die-cast enclosure can tolerate harsh application environments and includes CAN bus connectivity. Over-voltage protection from the AC line keeps the system compliant with UL, FCC B/CISPR-14, and UNECE R10 regulations.
A library of validated charge profiles can be specified for each charger. Charger cycle data can be downloaded and new charging profiles can be updated by the manufacturer or customer.
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely prevent only about one-third of crashes if systems drive like people, according to a study from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
“It’s likely that fully self-driving cars will eventually identify hazards better than people, but we found that this alone would not prevent the bulk of crashes,” says Jessica Cicchino, IIHS vice president for research and a coauthor of the study.
Safety advocates have promoted the idea that AVs are safer than human drivers because surveys of police-reported crashes show that driver error is the cause in more than 90% of accidents. However, IIHS’ analysis of crash data suggests AVs’ better optics and sensors, and their inability to experience blackouts or other medical emergencies, wouldn’t be enough to avoid two-thirds of crashes. Becoming significantly better drivers than humans would require programming that prioritizes safety ahead of speed and convenience.
“Building self-driving cars that drive as well as people do is a big challenge in itself,” says IIHS Research Scientist Alexandra Mueller, lead author of the study. “But they’d actually need to be better than that to deliver on the promises we’ve all heard.”
IIHS researchers examined more than 5,000 police-reported crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey in which at least one vehicle was towed away, and emergency medical services were called to the scene.
Researchers categorized crashes using five common errors:
Sensing and perceiving – Driver distraction, impeded visibility, failing to recognize hazards
Predicting – Misjudging traffic gaps, incorrectly estimating other vehicles’ speeds, faulty assumptions about what another road user was going to do
Planning/deciding – Driving too fast/slow for road conditions, driving aggressively, leaving too little following distance
Execution/performance – Inadequate/incorrect evasive maneuvers, overcompensation, mistakes in controlling vehicle
Incapacitation – Alcohol/drug impairment, medical problems, falling asleep
Researchers also determined some crashes were unavoidable, such as those caused by a vehicle failure such as a blowout or broken axle.
To predict the impact AVs will have on safety, IIHS experts imagined a future with only self-driving vehicles. Future vehicles would prevent crashes caused by perception errors or involving an incapacitated driver.
Crashes due to only sensing and perceiving errors accounted for 24% of the total, and incapacitation accounted for 10%. Those crashes might be avoided if all vehicles were self-driving, though it would require sensors that worked perfectly and systems that never malfunctioned.
Consider the Uber test vehicle crash that killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, in March 2018. Its automated system struggled to correctly identify 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg on the side of the road. Once it did, it still was not able to predict that she would cross in front of the vehicle, and it failed to execute the correct evasive maneuver to avoid striking her.
Planning/deciding errors contributed to about 40% of crashes. When humans decide how aggressively to drive, preferences sometimes conflict with safety priorities. To eliminate most crashes, AVs will have to do better.
“It will be crucial for designers to prioritize safety over rider preferences if autonomous vehicles are to live up to their promise to be safer than human drivers,” Mueller says.
