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a campaign to absorb noise and reduce the weight and cost of vehicles.
At ISL AUTOMOTIVE, the preparations for a new service in cooperation with the world’s largest adhesives manufacturer, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA of Düsseldorf, are going ahead at full speed: a campaign to absorb noise and reduce the weight and cost of vehicles.
To this end, the production facility at the Saarwellingen location has been expanded by 3300 square metres (35,500 sq. ft.) in no time at all. As soon as this autumn, 20 new ISL workers will be starting pre-production with this innovative Henkel product, with series production due to begin on the new Ford Focus in December 2010.
The concept is as new as it is innovative, and is intended to give Ford a considerable competitive edge:
vehicles with ‘Terophon® HDF’ have optimised noise absorption in their doors, while also being lighter and less expensive to manufacture. They’re quieter too, because individual door sections are filled with Terophon® HDF (high-damping foam), a special substance which is supplied by Henkel in granulated form and, using state-of-the-art Henkel extrusion equipment, applied to the body parts by ISL. In Ford’s electrophoretic painting oven, the product later expands into foam when heated and bonds with the bodywork before hardening completely.
Terophon® HDF can generally be applied in doors and roofs, the sound boxes of which have the same effect as giant loudspeaker membranes, to help avoid the notorious organ pipe effect. Apart from that, the vehicles are lighter, as this makes it possible to dispense with heavier conventional solutions entirely, the latter also being very costly in their application. Terophon® HDF thus brings the automotive industry some additional cost-saving opportunities by making further reductions possible in the thickness and weight of the steel sections used.
Ford will be going over to Terophon® HDF on the new Focus worldwide, and the plant in Saarlouis will be playing a major role, processing a greater volume of Terophon® HDF than any other facility. ISL, which has been a reliable system logistics partner to Ford for many years, will be fulfilling another important function. “It is particularly because we rely on our excellent and especially trustful business relations with the management and works council at Ford that we have decided to make this investment, which is a really big one for ISL. We see this decision of ours as a significant step into the future, a future for which we are thoroughly well prepared”, says ISL’s managing director Jürgen Dincher.
By the way, it’s not only the automotive sector which can benefit from this new ISL service, but also makers of aircraft, commercial vehicles and track vehicles and manufacturers of household appliances. If you’re interested in this new process, Jürgen Dincher will of course be glad to offer you his advice.
*Terophon® is a trademark of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
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