SPE Vehicle Engineering Team Award goes to Ford Motor Co.
Press Release Summary:
As part of its 40th annual Automotive Innovation Awards Competition, Automotive Division of SPE announced that Ford Motor Company is 2010 winner of group's Vehicle Engineering Team Award for 2011MY Ford® Explorer mid-size SUV. Vehicle makes extensive use of polymeric materials to improve fit and finish, reduce weight, and increase customer comfort and safety, while offering best-in-class fuel economy and lowest CO2 emissions of mid-size SUVs.
Original Press Release:
Ford Motor Co. Wins Third SPE Vehicle Engineering Team Award
TROY, (DETROIT) MICH. - As part of its 40th-annual Automotive Innovation Awards
Competition, the Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE®) today announced that Ford Motor Co. is the 2010 winner of the group's Vehicle Engineering Team Award (VETA) for significant use of innovative plastics content on the 2011MY Ford® Explorer mid-size sport-utility vehicle (SUV). This is the third year the automaker has been awarded the prize, winning last year with the 2010MY Ford® Taurus sedan and the previous year with the 2009MY Ford Flex(TM) crossover-utility vehicle (CUV).
Unlike other SPE executive awards, the Vehicle Engineering Team Award recognizes the technical achievements of entire teams comprised of automotive designers and engineers, tier integrators, materials suppliers, toolmakers, and others whose work - in research, design, engineering, and/or manufacturing - has led to significant integration of polymeric materials on a notable vehicle. This is the fourth time in seven years that the award has been presented. The first winner was Porsche AG in 2004 for the '04MY Porsche® Carrera GT supercar. A representative from Ford will accept
the award during SPE's annual Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, the oldest and largest
recognition event in the automotive and plastics industries, on November 9, 2010, at Burton Manor in Livonia, Mich.
Ford describes its newly redesigned Explorer truck as "defining the SUV for the 21st Century" and says it provides class-leading fuel economy (comparable to that of mid-size sedans), industryleading safety features such as the world's first rear inflatable seatbelts, integrated communications services like SYNC(TM) and MyFord Touch(TM), and quality that sets the benchmark in the SUV segment. With over 6-million units sold since the model was launched in 1990, the Explorer is the world's best-selling mid-size SUV. In its newest form, it is lighter, offers best-inclass fuel economy and the lowest CO2 emissions of mid-size SUVs, plus makes extensive use of sustainable materials in keeping with the company's focus on green technologies.
With numerous patents already filed on features that either debuted or were redesigned for the Explorer facelift, the vehicle makes extensive use of polymeric materials to improve fit and finish, reduce weight, and increase customer comfort and safety. In addition to winning the 2010 VETA award, seven components from the Explorer SUV were entered into the parts portion of SPE's Automotive Innovation Awards Competition, with four nominations achieving Finalist status:
- Inside Handle/Tweeter/Bezel Wrap-Around - this wraparound inside door handle bezel with integral speaker tweeter and lock/unlock switch provides outstanding fit & finish and function,
- Interior Trim with 3-D Appearance - decorative film over a textured surface creates a 3-D appearance on door appliqués, while reducing cost and increasing design flexibility;
- Reactor-Grade, Talc-Filled Polypropylene (PP) - eliminating secondary compounding and reducing the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process, reactor-grade PP is used to mold quarter trim panels in the rear cargo area while improving craftsmanship and lowering cost;
- Dual-Lens Cup-Holder Light - a new one-piece design that integrate primary illumination surface with show-surface lens on cup-holder light rings improves perceived quality and enables vehicle occupants to customize interior lighting colors;
- 4-way Adjustable EPP Headrest - a unique 2-piece EPP foam design allows for more comfortable, 4-way adjustable headrests that still comply with new safety requirements for rear impact conditions while facilitating assembly, reducing weight, and saving on tooling costs,
- Inflatable Seatbelts - special tubular webbing used in the shoulder portion of rear seatbelts hides an inflatable airbag that is deployed when front driver and passenger airbags are triggered, protecting second- and third-row occupants, and particularly upper- and lower-percentage occupants,
- Advanced, All-TPO Airbag Chute for Seamless Passenger Airbag (PAB) Systems - unique tool design allows a special "hook and window" feature to be created at the hinges of this advanced allthermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) PAB chute, reducing squeak and rattle, improving airbag-to-chute alignment, reducing weight and cost, and making the entire assembly fully recyclable.
Other plastics intensive features on the vehicle include all TPV glass runs, molded-in-color metallic sparkle silver roof-rack end caps, structural composite radiator support, all-plastic lower intake manifold, illuminated nameplate, and direct LED forward and side lighting.
With a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $29,280 USD, the Explorer mid-size SUV seats up to 7 people and is rated at 14 miles/gallon city and 20 miles/gallon highway (5.6 kilometers/liter city and 8.5 kilometers/liter highway). For more information on the vehicle, see http://www.fordvehicles.com/suvs/explorer/.
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich.,
manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 200,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products, please visit www.ford.com.
SPE's Automotive Innovation Awards Program is the oldest and largest competition of its kind in the world. Dozens of teams made up of OEMs, tier suppliers, and polymer producers submit nominations describing their part, system, or complete vehicle module and why it merits the claim as the Year's Most Innovative Use of Plastics. This annual event typically draws 600 to 800 OEM engineers, automotive and plastics industry executives, and media. As is customary, funds raised from this event are used to support SPE educational efforts and technical seminars, which help educate and secure the role of plastics in the advancement of the automobile.
The mission of SPE International is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. SPE's Automotive Division is active in educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic based-composite developments in the global transportation industry. Topic areas include applications, materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design, and development.
For more information about the Automotive Innovation Awards Competition and Gala or to
download nomination forms and rules, please visit the SPE Automotive Division's website at speautomotive.com/inno and speautomotive.com/awa, or contact the group at +1.248.244.8993, or write SPE Automotive Division, 1800 Crooks Road, Suite A, Troy, MI 48084, USA. For more information on the Society of Plastics Engineers International or other SPE events, visit the SPE website at www.4spe.org, or call +1.203.775.0471.
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