On 16th October 2014, the Lightweight Construction Forum – Expert Discussions will focus on the topic of lightweight automotive construction. Growing safety requirements and more and more comfort features are making modern vehicles increasingly heavy. At the same time, customers and environmental standards demand that these vehicles achieve low fuel consumption. Weight savings can above all be made by using new materials and material compositions. “The aim of lightweight construction is to reduce the weight of vehicles whilst still maintaining a sufficient amount of rigidity, dynamic stability and solidness", declares Prof. Dr Jürgen Leohold, the Head of Volkswagen Group Research and AutoUni Group Research. Prof. Dr Leohold is also the patron of the Lightweight Construction Forum, which will take place at the Mobility Forum venue in the IZB exhibition grounds in the Allerpark in Wolfsburg. More information can be found online atwww.izb-leichtbau.com.
The forum will feature a number of expert presentations focusing on the development chain, from material and product development right through to product use. The experts at the event will discuss topics such as new manufacturing technologies for hybrid lightweight construction, innovations for the automotive industry and vehicle weight reductions.
“A newly registered car in Germany currently produces an average CO2 emission of 141.1 g/km. This value needs to be lowered to 95 g/km by 2020”, explains Thomas Krause, a Member of the Board of Wolfsburg AG, the organiser of the IZB. “Reducing the weight of vehicles plays a significant role in helping companies to achieve this objective.”
The specialist forum will feature talks by experts from the companies Volkswagen AG, ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe and Muhr and Bender KG, as well as the Fraunhofer Institute and Braunschweig University of Technology. The event will be hosted by Claus-Peter Köth, the Chief Editor of “Automobil Industrie”, a German specialist magazine for the automotive industry.