Audi Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary of Aluminum & Lightweight Design Center

AUDI PRESS RELEASE
For 10 years Audi has been producing designs for vehicles such as the Audi A8 and the Audi A2 at the Aluminum and Lightweight Design Center in Neckarsulm. Audi established the Aluminium Center in in 1994.

The original idea behind the establishment of the center was so that Audi could bring together the expertise of the Development, Production Planning and Quality Assurance departments.

The complete name of the center reflects the fact that research and development activities have long since shifted their focus beyond aluminium. High-strength steels, tailored blanks, reinforced plastics and magnesium are used on an increasingly more regular basis at Audi.

"My vision is of economical lightweight design for volume production. We need to exploit the potential of materials for lightweight vehicles as effectively as possible and use the right materials in the right place. Aluminium of course remains the principal material in lightweight design for Audi, but we are increasingly looking into the potential of other materials," said Heinrich Timm, Head of the Aluminium and Lightweight Design Center.

Besides the development of the vehicles such as the Audi A2 and the A8, the Aluminium and Lightweight Design Center developed for Lamborghini the Gallardo sports car. Interestingly, Audi's development of the aluminium car body has had significant impact on the steel industry. In response to the development of the first volume-production aluminium body for the Audi A8, steel manufacturers increased their efforts to develop high-strength and super-high-strength steels for body manufacturing. The level of Audi's automation in body manufacturing is now around 80%. This corresponds to the degree of automation achieved in the production of a conventional steel car body.

In ten years Audi has built about 320,000 cars with aluminium bodies. Currently Audi employs 110 people at the Aluminium and Lightweight Design Center.