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Automotive manufacturing is a constantly evolving process, ever-changing as new technologies enable manufacturers to produce better, safer, and more cost-efficient vehicles. Having manufactured custom bearing assemblies and components for automotive uses for more than 35 years, we’ve seen this automotive innovation first hand. In fact, each time you adjust your car seat, there is a good chance one of our assemblies provides the smooth sliding motion. Whether the retainer is metal or plastic, state-of-the-art vision systems are employed to detect the presence of the balls and rollers to ensure every assembly is perfect. To follow are just a few other innovations of note in automotive manufacturing:
A few years ago, Ford produced a truck with an all-aluminum frame. Since then, using aluminum to lower weight and boost performance has been the industry trend. While some parts which must endure a high level friction such as our custom bearing assemblies will likely always need to be made out of stainless steel, many parts in a vehicle that were traditionally steel are now being made using aluminum. Advanced metallurgy has allowed car manufacturers to produce aluminum parts that are much lighter than their steel counterparts, boosting both the fuel efficiency and the performance of the vehicle. Best of all, aluminum parts are more affordable than steel, driving down manufacturing costs.
Before the age of electronics, vehicle systems were largely isolated in their function. As the programming inside vehicles becomes increasingly advanced, every system in a vehicle is integrated with the systems around it. For example, the braking system on many vehicles is now integrated with the vehicle's collision-detection systems to automatically apply the brakes pre-collision, and information about every system in the vehicle is now accessible via the vehicle heads-up-display.
Soon, vehicles will even be able to integrate with other vehicles. Many car manufacturers are now working towards producing cars and trucks with vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology, allowing vehicles to "know" where other cars are on the road and avoid many accidents.
Ford recently unveiled a 6-cylinder twin turbo GT, capable of 600 horsepower. It was a move that irked many V8 purists, but there's no denying the car's performance, and it is evidence of the industry trend of putting more power in fewer cylinders. While the lowly 4-cylinder was once reserved for only the slowest of cars, today, more and more new cars on the road are now powered by a 4-cylinder turbo engine. Vehicle manufacturers are figuring out how to get more and more power out of four cylinders, allowing for better fuel efficiency while still maintaining performance. Expect the shift to 4-cylinder engines to continue. In the near future, car manufacturers will likely even roll out the world's first 4-cylinder supercar.
The majority of automotive innovations have been centered around increasing the safety of vehicles. This includes new technology such as automatic braking systems, blind-spot detection, and advanced airbags. Other times, safety comes from manufacturers paying increased attention to the quality of their parts. As the country's leading bearing manufacturer, safety is always our number one priority, and we strive to produce parts that will never fail, no matter the situation. As time goes on, vehicles will become safer and safer to drive, and we're proud to be part of helping push that initiative forward.
There's a lot going on in the world of automotive manufacturing, and we here at Hartford Technologies are proud to be a part of it. From a simple hard-working ball bearing all the way up to our custom bearing assemblies, we use the latest manufacturing technologies and processes to produce parts that will make cars in the future perform better, be safer to drive, be more fuel-efficient, and last longer. If you would like to learn more about any of the parts we produce, feel free to contact us today.
