Gestamp showcases EV-focused innovations at IZB 2022

Gestamp, the Spanish multinational Tier 1 supplier which specialises in the design, development and manufacturing of metal components for the automotive sector, showcased an array of products and innovations at the IZB (International Suppliers Fair) 2022 held in Wolfsburg, Germany from October 11-13.

The company displayed extreme size parts, battery boxes, cell-to-pack concepts, joining technologies, chassis, innovative lightweight solutions, Active Frunks or power doors. The company’s R&D teams presented core innovations and technologies from Gestamp's three business areas at the IZB: Body, Chassis and Mechanics (Edscha).

The trends and changes in the mobility of tomorrow present automotive manufacturers and their suppliers with a variety of new challenges. The greatly increased weight of EVs due to the integration of battery boxes and the resulting changes in vehicle structure and dynamics are just a few examples that suppliers like Gestamp have to take into account when developing its products and technologies. Furthermore, aspects such as safety, lightweight construction and a reduction in CO2 emissions continue to play a decisive role.
 

Body-In-White
In the BiW area, Gestamp presented some innovations and technologies from the EV portfolio. For example, Extreme Size Parts, a new generation of body parts that integrate multiple functions as one-piece solutions in Giga-Stamping.

According to Ignacio Martin, Global BiW R&D General Director at Gestamp, “This new product family offers a unique combination of increased crash safety, light weight, lower costs and CO2 reduction in a single product. This hot stamped steel solution with different material properties and thickness combinations allows our OEMs to offer a significant reduction in assembly time. Extreme size parts represent an optimal solution for the design of new EVs and make it possible to largely cope with crash safety in the vehicle body and thus reduce the complexity of the battery box”.

Gestamp, which also develops safer and lighter battery electric vehicle (BEV) solutions, showcased a multi-material battery box made of fibre-reinforced plastic FRP (100% reusable and circularly recyclable) and aluminium.

Chassis Division's 'HyperTubes' 
The company’s Chassis Division has recently introduced ‘HyperTubes’ (high-strength complex-phase steel tubes) where the development of rear axle supports has resulted in an improvement, especially in EVs, by increasing crash performance while reducing weight at the same time.

Ulf Sudowe, Chassis R&D General Director at Gestamp, said: “Front and rear axles are complex and load-bearing components that are located in the lower part of the vehicle. They carry the engine connection and are subjected to high loads and forces, while at the same time playing an important role in the safety of the vehicle. That is why it is so important to develop different ideas and solutions for modern and future-oriented components that meet current and future e-mobility requirements in the chassis.”

Mechanisms: second-gen Power Door
The third business unit, under the brand name Edscha, displayed the second generation of its Power Door for the first time at the IZB. What is new about it is not only the actuator, which is now located in the door check area.

Edscha offers a comprehensive system around the Power Door, including intelligent sensor technology that detects obstacles in the vicinity of the door and can stop the door in due time before a collision. Edscha also supplies the control unit (ECU). It is used to control the actuator by means of specially developed software and is the link to the vehicle environment monitoring system, which also detects static and dynamic obstacles such as pedestrians and cyclists.

As with the first generation of the Power Door, which Edscha put into series production in 2021, the second generation also has a so-called servo function. This means that even heavy doors can be moved manually with virtually no effort (no matter what position the car is in). The Power Door is also stepless, meaning it has no stop notches but keeps the door firmly in place in any position.

“With the Active Frunk,” Edscha CEO César Pontvianne de la Maza says, “we offer a state–of-the-art solution specially tailored to electric vehicles. Where there is still a combustion engine in most vehicles today, space is freed up in the electric vehicle that can be used as an additional luggage compartment, for example.” The Active Frunk combines an actuator for fully automatic opening and closing of the front lid with a hinge for active pedestrian protection.