Advanced multimaterials to reach competitiveness in the automotive industry

The second edition of the technical conference ‘Advanced Multimaterial Structures in the Automotive Industry 2018’ took place on 2 October, where more than 100 professionals gathered to discuss about multi-materials in the design and manufacture of parts for the automotive sector.

Along with the collaboration of technology centres and the university, the automotive industry in the Basque Country is investing heavily in the manufacture of cleaner vehicles, which implies lighter cars, but without undermining safety. Car manufacturers are responding to the challenge with a multi-material strategy: ‘The right material in the right place’.

The combination of materials in its manufacture was the key bet for this event that was structured in three large blocks: market, lightening and joining technologies. It is on this last point that our colleagues Sonia Flórez and Fernando Liébana made their presentation ‘laser joining of hybrid assemblies, and hybrid joining cell for multimaterial components manufacturing and added functionalities to adhesive joints’.

We also have companies and organisations such as EUCAR, Scope, A2Mac1, Arcelor, Edertek, Fagor Arrasate, Astar, Gestamp, Krausmaffei, Atlas Copco and DoW Automotive Systems that contributed their vision and experience in the multimaterial strategy.

In the hall of the AIC, parts of the Jaguar F-Pace and Audi Q5 were exhibited by the company A2Mac1, which demonstrated the solutions that are already being applied in the market.