Multimatic wins PACE Award with Sophisticated Welding Process

They're always pushing the envelope. I've said before that welding is perhaps the most overlooked manufacturing process around, and here it is in a super sophisticated, highly effective application.

Multimatic wins 2005 Automotive News PACE Award

Multimatic has been named as a 2005 Automotive News PACE Award winner - recognizing the Toronto-based company as key automotive supplier for superior innovation, technological advancement and business performance.

Multimatic received the award in Detroit on April 11 for its new proprietary I-Beam Control Arm Technology which was introduced on the 2005 Ford Mustang.

This unique vehicle suspension member is configured to utilize two complex press formed stampings, welded together to form a highly efficient I-beam cross-section.

An I-beam is the most structurally efficient section for a MacPherson strut suspension arrangement. The truly innovative aspect of the Multimatic technology is that each stamping is configured with the correct plan view shape and is formed into a U-shaped section with the upstanding flanges fully returned 180 degrees back upon themselves to effectively double their thickness.

This requires highly sophisticated metal forming techniques to fold the edges back into a double material thickness upstanding flange, especially around the tight radii dictated by the plan view shape. The two stampings are then placed together in a back-to-back arrangement and welded along the free, peripheral edge using a novel and proprietary gas metal arc welding process.

Read more...