Visteon Defines the Future of Automotive Design With Superintegration(TM)
15 September 1999
Visteon Defines the Future of Automotive Design With Superintegration(TM)
FRANKFURT, Germany, Sept. 15 -- Visteon Automotive Systems is
leading an automotive industry revolution with Superintegration(TM) -- an
innovative technology destined to define the future of automotive design.
With Visteon's unsurpassed Superintegration technology, automotive
manufacturers have a remarkable opportunity to completely redesign vehicle
systems to save weight and cost, improve space and packaging, and incorporate
leading-edge technologies to maximize quality and reliability.
"Visteon's Superintegration capabilities are unparalleled in the
industry," said Stephen Delaney, vice president, Interior and Exterior
systems, Visteon. "In fact, automotive manufacturers recently rated Visteon
the top systems integrator among all automotive suppliers."
In developing Superintegration, Visteon made fundamental changes in its
organizational thinking, technology innovations, and ideas about modularity.
The results have vastly improved Visteon's ability to reconfigure vehicle
features to meet the needs and interests of consumers. Other benefits
include:
* 30 percent weight savings
* 20 percent cost improvements
* 30 percent quality improvements
* 50 percent faster product development time
* 50 percent fewer number of parts
"In working at the highest level of Superintegration, we have set aside
assumptions about what is and isn't possible in the design and manufacture of
vehicles, and have advanced the entire industry," Delaney concluded.
Suppliers around the world face an ever increasing demand from automotive
manufacturers to deliver a higher degree of value in their products.
Visteon's Superintegration capabilities allow the organization to deliver
customer systems that have been designed as integrated solutions from the
outset.
Unlike some efforts to assemble disparate modules into a system, Visteon
experts engineer an entire system -- such as the integrated cockpit -- as a
single unit designed to meet the unique needs of customers.
"Visteon's Superintegration is truly a culmination of the extraordinary
systems integration expertise we offer to our customers," said Visteon
President Craig Muhlhauser. "We have every strategic capability necessary to
produce the most advanced integrated systems available today -- this is the
future of automotive systems design."
Visteon's vast technological resources and broad systems expertise have
carried the Superintegration concept to new levels:
* The current level in development of Superintegration incorporates a
magnesium cross car beam in the cockpit which reduces weight and allows
manufacturers to integrate a number of brackets into the beam casting process.
The cockpit uses fewer parts, improves sound and vibration deadening and
increases the space available for storage and vehicle functions. Air ducts
are integrated; electronics are partially integrated. The design begins to
move away from conventional round wire and introduces some usage of flat-wire
technology. This cockpit has a fully integrated and fully featured instrument
cluster with five gauges, warning lights and message center.
* The next level of Superintegration will integrate module electronics,
housings, brackets and heatsinks in the cockpit. Flatwire or autoneural
technology will be incorporated throughout this cockpit. Because electronics
are shared throughout this cockpit, the radio will be integrated into the
module and will no longer be a box, resulting in tremendous space savings.
Other systems, such as the air conditioning system, will be fully integrated
into the cockpit.
* Beyond that, future levels of Superintegration will advance electronic
design by functionally combining the electronics, wire harness, connectors and
modules. This will be achieved by 'populating' the electronics directly onto
the flatwire, eliminating the need for circuit boards. This technology,
developed, designed and patented by Visteon, is unique in the supplier
industry and will offer Visteon customers the capability to incorporate the
most advanced technologies into their vehicle designs.
"We believe Superintegration is a vitally important technology for vehicle
manufacturers," said Dave Scroggie, Interior Systems and Superintegration
manager, Visteon. "We can help our customers meet the demands of their
customers by improving quality, saving cost and weight, and opening up space
for even more features."
"Superintegration also offers vehicle manufacturers a level of plug-and-
play flexibility which they currently don't have in conventional cockpits,"
Scroggie continued. "And we are using advanced Computer Aided Engineering
tools to design these systems and insure that they meet and exceed our
customers design expectations."
With a global delivery system of more than 125 technical, manufacturing,
sales and service facilities located in 21 countries, Visteon Automotive
Systems is leveraging the talents of its 77,000 employees to deliver
innovative, consumer-driven systems solutions to its customers.