June 29, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is among seven universities joining the Automotive Research Alliance (ARA), formed to assist the automotive industry in addressing issues ranging from academic programs to technology and manufacturing challenges.
The ARA has members from several Southeastern states, including Alabama, with a major industry presence in automotive manufacturing and supplier operations. These states are relatively new manufacturing sites for the automotive industry and will benefit from collaboration on training and research related to the automotive industry, said Thomas E. Jackson, Ph.D., director of research engineering in the UAB School of Engineering, who is leading UAB’s involvement in the alliance.
“We want to see this bring automotive-related research to the university community,” Jackson said. “The universities need to have substantive contacts with the Tier 1 and Tier 2 auto manufacturing suppliers that can promote both educational as well as research opportunities for the suppliers.”
The ARA effort is a collaboration of the National Transportation Research Center Inc. (NTRCI), the Tennessee Valley Authority, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the universities. The other alliance members are the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Clemson University, the University of Kentucky, Mississippi State University and the University of Tennessee.
UAB in the automotive industry
Although the details of UAB’s involvement have yet to be determined, Jackson said, the university already is well-positioned to contribute in the areas of casting and composites.
“Most of the work we have done in areas associated with public transportation has been in composites,” Jackson said. “We historically have done a lot of casting research for automotive clients.”
The UAB Casting Engineering Laboratory (CEL) focuses on research and development in Lost Foam Casting production and other areas of iron, aluminum and steel casting. “We have relatively unique facilities for doing the casting research,” Jackson said.
UAB also has ongoing engineering research in mass transit projects, one involving changes in bus manufacturing. For both buses and auto manufacturing, weight is an important issue, Jackson said. “With the cost of fuel going up, weight will be a big issue, and composites are a good way to reduce weight while reducing cost simultaneously.”
The first steps of the alliance will be those of discovery. “This first year is going to determine what sort of interactions we can expect from the automotive industry,” Jackson said. NTRCI will hire an Automotive Alliance research director who will be the liaison between universities and the automotive industry.
“The automotive industry is a very competitive one,” Jackson said. “The profit margins are very narrow for a lot of the suppliers. The suppliers are very interested in being competitive in their costs; therefore, investments in research are made cautiously.”
“One of the reasons this alliance has been put together is to get the right focus on which suppliers need to change the processes that they use,” Jackson said.
The industries want to improve, Jackson said. “The real question for them is: What is the return on their investment?”