Pulse Welding Part 2

Continued from page 1.

Although the 2006 launch represents the technology's high-volume light-vehicle debut, the supplier was close to using the technology for driveshafts in 2003 for low-volume commercial vehicles. But Dana sources say that contract fell through because the vehicle program was canceled.

Laisure says the technology is cost-competitive with conventional welding, and he expects magnetic pulse welding operations to be running in many of Dana's 13 driveshaft manufacturing and assembly plants in the U.S. by the end of the decade.

"I think once the market has a feel for the technology and sees the product and the performance, we will see an expansion," Laisure says. "We will see some of the current technology we have being replaced by magnetic pulse welding."

At the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, Dana showed an integrated independent rear suspension for fullsize trucks, and the supplier used magnetic pulse welding to join the module's aluminum structural cross members to the steel rails.

Meanwhile, Dana's new Automotive Systems Technology Center in Maumee, southwest of Toledo, will serve as the global engineering center for driveshafts and axles as part of the supplier's Torque & Traction Div., which accounts for $3.2 billion of Dana's $8 billion in annual sales.

The $45 million technology center has dynamometers for testing axles and driveshafts, and its "paperless" design capability springs from 3-dimensional computer modeling and advanced computer simulation. Testing and analysis capabilities include a full metallurgical lab with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope.

The Maumee Technology Center employs 500 people and consolidates operations from seven other Dana facilities. Of the 500, 150 relocated from Dana's former engineering facility in Fort Wayne, IN, and 160 relocated from nearby Holland, OH.

Pulse Welding Arrives