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“Innovative lightweight design is a key technology” At its new Lightweight Design and Engineering Center in Landshut, BMW is bringing together all its expertise and resources to develop the weight-saving technologies of the future. In the ATZ interview, Florian Schek, Head of Lightweight Design and Vehicle Weight, and Michael Schuh, Head of the Lightweight Design and Engineering Center, both BMW Group, describe the strategic direction that the centre will be taking and their top-priority goals.
ATZ _ Michael Schuh, in the autumn of 2016, the BMW Group opened its new Lightweight Design and Engineering Center in Landshut. What lies behind this move? Which objectives are at the top of your list? SCHUH _ Innovative lightweight design is a key technology for the global automotive industry. Against the background of the growing need to reduce carbon dioxide
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emissions and the development of new powertrain concepts, it will play a decisive role in the competitiveness of manufacturers in an industry that is in a state of constant change. At the same time, it is important for us to focus on our customers’ requirements, because lightweight vehicles not only use less fuel, but also have more dynamic and agile handling.
At the new centre, we have brought together all our lightweight design skills under one roof, which has enabled us to exploit a number of useful synergies. We have more expertise in light alloys, casting, plastics and fibre composites here in Landshut than can be found anywhere else. We aim to develop our leading role in the field of lightweight tech-
Dipl.-Phys. Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Phys. Michael Schuh
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(born in 1967) studied engineering physics and industrial science and economics at the Technical University of Munich. He has a degree in physics and economics. He started his career at the BMW Group in 2000 with a position in the department for process consultancy and supplier development. After working in a number of roles in the central purchasing department, he moved to Oxford in the UK in 2007 to become Head of Interior, Electrics and Electronics Purchasing for Mini. Subsequently he joined the development division, where he held several different positions, and then, in the autumn of 2016, he was appointed Head of the newly opened BMW Group Lightweight Design and Engineering Center.
nology even further on the basis of the interaction between these different disciplines and to create the perfect mix of materials for the vehicles of the future. The key is to use the right material in the right place. What resources do you have to allow you to achieve these objectives? SCHUH _ Around 160 specialists from a wide variety of disciplines are working together in our new building, which has a floor area of 7600 m2, and researching into innovative materials, composite concepts and production processes for future generations of vehicles. We have very close links with the production facilities in Landshut and also, of course, with the various process chains that make up our product development process. Where necessary, we can bring together people with the relevant skills in temporary project areas. The decisive factor is the expertise that the individual employees can contribute to the project. Their department and their position in the hierarchy are unimportant in this respect. Against this background, we work closely with our colleagues from the development, purchasing and production divisions.
Which research institutions and/or industrial facilities acted as role models for your centre? SCHUH _ We didn’t have a specific blueprint. However, we were inspired by a ATZ worldwide
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number of different trends both inside and outside the company when it came to designing the building and its interior. These trends are closely related to the changes taking place in the world of work as a result of digitisation. At the heart of the design process was the question of how we could create the best possible conditions to encourage creativity and interdisciplinary cooperation. As a result, it was important to us that the centre’s innovative approach was reflected in its design. The architecture and the functionality combine to form a unit, a concept that will be familiar from many of the BMW Group’s buildings. You only need to think of the BMW headquarters, the BMW Welt exhi-
“We didn’t have a specific blueprint” bition centre and the research and innovation centre (known as the FIZ-Projekthaus) in Munich or the central building at our plant in Leipzig. Inside the building, we have designed the project areas on the basis of concepts that have proved successful in the research and innovation centre in Munich over several decades. We have also put the emphasis on flexible workplace design, open communications and fast decision-making. In addition, we have deliberately broken down existing organisational and disci-
pline-based structures to allow ideas and innovation to flourish. To what extent is your team of 160 engineers genuinely interdisciplinary? Do you cover the complete vehicle development and production process and the entire vehicle life cycle? SCHUH _ We have skills in a broad range of areas. The team includes specialists in lightweight alloys, plastics and CFRP, together with lab technicians and experts in process optimisation. The focus of our work is on developing and industrialising lightweight components. Typical issues that we have to deal with include: How can we use innovations to reduce vehicle weight? How can we industrialise these innovations so that they can be reliably integrated into mass production processes? How can different materials or components be combined with one another intelligently? The key success factor in all three of these areas is close collaboration with the vehicle development teams and geographical proximity to the production facilities.
How would you describe your work? Does it fall into the category of pre-development or is it actually product development? SCHUH _ Both of these things. As I’ve already explained, in our portfolio of projects we put the emphasis on the pre-development of components. However, at the same time we are looking ahead, far beyond the next generation of products, and focusing in detail on
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Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Florian Schek (born in 1975) studied
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mechanical and automotive engineering at the Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Munich and has a degree in automotive engineering. He joined the BMW Group in 2000, where his first position was in the competitive analysis and product target systems department. In 2006, he moved to the department of portfolio development and early phase product development within the research and development division. Since 2012, Schek has been working in the field of lightweight design. Initially he was responsible for the medium-sized and large model ranges and then, in 2015, he took on overall responsibility for lightweight design and vehicle weight for BMW Group vehicles.
the fundamental properties and potential of materials or on questions of architecture development. Where necessary, we also help our colleagues in the production departments with our technical expertise. Who are your main customers within the BMW Group? SCHUH _ Essentially all the BMW Group brands – BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce – with all their derivatives, including BMW M and BMW i. The services we provide cover a wide range of areas including interior components, the vehicle structure, the powertrain and the chassis. For us, innovative lightweight design is not simply a unique feature of a few prototypes. It is embedded in the DNA of our entire model range.
“Often this involves detailed fine-tuning” What is likely to happen next with the individual lightweight technologies? Am I right in thinking that the interest in CFRP has died down? SCHEK _ No, not from our perspective. Perhaps at the moment there are not as many eye-catching examples, like the carbon passenger cell of the BMW i models. But you only have to look at the car-
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bon core body of the current BMW 7 Series. It represents a significant step forwards in the use of carbon together with other lightweight materials in large-scale production. For us, lightweight design means using the right material in the right place. We don’t see CFRP as an end in itself. It is an addition to our lightweight toolbox and we use it where it makes sense to do so and where the specific benefits of the material can have the greatest impact. The BMW i models make intelligent use of a combination of CFRP, aluminium and plastic. The 7 Series has its own specific challenges because of its segment and its production constraints, but it represents a seamless progression from the BMW i models. This is precisely what we want to take further. We will be developing concepts that are suitable for mass production and that also reduce costs using the relatively new technology of carbon fibre. High-strength steels are very difficult to process. Do you believe that there are technical limits on their use? SCHEK _ In
the case of every material, you need to look carefully at the purposes that it is and is not suitable for and where it should be used. This makes it all the more important to analyse and evaluate the potential of each material in detail. A whole series of factors plays a significant role, including formability, component strength, machine tool
design, possible joining methods and component stiffness. The use of highstrength steels is sometimes restricted by their stiffness, because components cannot be made thinner, despite the fact that they meet the requirements for strength. However, it is important to realise that the properties of high-strength steels are constantly being developed. With new alloys and different manufacturing processes, developers are attempting to achieve the right balance between strength and elongation at fracture. The resulting materials can be used to make composites for a wide range of purposes. The subject of lightweight design is not a new one. Have we already exploited its full potential? Do you think there is still the possibility of taking a major step forwards or is it just a case of making small improvements? SCHEK _ It’s true that lightweight design has been around for a long time. It has been with us throughout the 100 years of our company’s history. The first aircraft engine developed by BMW had innovative lightweight design features. However, we are still making progress in technical terms. Often this involves detailed fine-tuning, but sometimes we make a big leap forwards. One example is the LifeDrive architecture of the BMW i models with the carbon passenger cell. One of the biggest transformations in the history of motor vehicles lies ahead of us and this will definitely result in completely new approaches to the fundamen-
tal product architecture. For these reasons, it is essential for us to remain hungry and innovative in this area. Lightweight design is not just about reducing the weight and fuel consumption of vehicles, it also influences their handling. In which areas of a car do you think lightweight components play the biggest role? At the front or the back, on top or underneath? SCHEK _ At BMW, we have always put a great deal of emphasis on the driving dynamics of our products. This means we must ensure that the majority of the vehicle’s weight is low down between the two axles to keep the unsprung mass to a minimum. For this reason, we use lightweight components in the exposed areas of the car, such as the roof, the front-end, the rear and the doors and closures. We also manufacture components that make up a large proportion of the overall weight of the car, for example the engine, the body structure and the chassis, from lightweight materials. At the centre, our job is to fill the pipeline with solutions that will meet our future needs. Against the background of increasingly stringent regulations, this will allow us to safeguard the excellent DNA of our vehicles.
Do you have a road map for lightweight design measures that shows where a reduction in weight is allowed to increase product costs? Or does every kilogram of weight lost have the same value? ATZ worldwide
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Stefan Schlott, ATZ Correspondent, in conversation with Michael Schuh and Florian Schek (from left)
SCHEK _ For the reasons we’ve described above, in other words, manufacturability and the costs needed to achieve it, this becomes clear almost of its own accord for every individual vehicle project. We have reference road maps, for example, which indicate the areas where lightweight design is particularly important. We use them to assess what our suppliers have to offer, because, in terms of weight, we buy in around half of the components for our cars. The availability of lightweight parts is an important consideration in the selection process.
Michael Schuh and Florian Schek, thank you very much for talking to us.
INTERVIEW: Stefan Schlott
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