Jointly funded by Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund, Premium Vehicle Lightweight Technologies (PVLT) is the first of WMG's Premium Vehicle Centres of Excellence, and forms a key area of WMG's Low Carbon initiative. The project is built upon the success of the Premium Automotive Research and Development (PARD) programme before it, and seeks to expand on the knowledge and new technologies generated by that programme.

The overall goal of PVLT is to find new and innovative ways to reduce the weight of cars in the premium automotive sector, thus reducing their fuel consumption and CO2 emmsions. The project consists of three areas:

Forming

As new lightweight materials are developed for today's cars, the process of forming these materials must also develop so that these materials can be formed and pressed effictively and quickly to reduce lead time and process costs. The following areas of research are being supported within the project area:

• Advanced materials for exterior panels
• Advanced materials for structural panels
• Hydroforming
• Lubrication strategies
• Aluminium tailored blanks

Joining

As the use of lightweight materials and hybrid structures is being driven within the automotive sector we need to ensure that newly developed materials can be joined to meet engineering requirements and cost effectiveness targets. The following areas of research are being supported within the project area:

• Industrially robust resistant spot welding for aluminium
• Self-pierce riveting for Premium Lightweight Vehicles
• Single sided joining for high strength, low weight automotive structures
• MIG/MAG/CMT welding technologies for automotive application

These activities are supported by Jaguar Land Rover and the 'Body-in-White Technology Guild' - a group of competing comapnies who work together to enhance the regional knowledge base. These companies are: Stadco, Sertec, CovPress, The Premier Group, and Whiston Industries.

Simulation

Developing prototypes for car components and body structures is a time consuming, expensive, and not a very eco-friendly process. That's why more and more manufacturers are turning to simulation techniques to help develop their products. The Simulation team at WMG is working to improve these modelling capabilities and roll them out into industry. The following areas of research are being supported within the project area:

• Cosmetic surface defect detection
• Geometrical quality analysis
• Complexity in product variety