The original Audi Space Frame
03-06-2005, 09:21 PM
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The original Audi Space Frame
Does anyone here know any url links or know where I can do some research on the history of the development of the ASF? I'm sort-of aware that it took 10 years, 40 patents, and ALCOA was involved, but hardly any more than that. I think that aircraft technology played a significant role in the design of this car, and would like to have this verified or proven wrong if need be.
thanks
Ray
thanks
Ray
03-06-2005, 10:43 PM
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Background of ASF
Thanks to TerminA8r for the link, I have read and bookmarked it. It's interesting stuff needless to say, but I would like to find out more if possible. I'm going to look for the out-of-print book too.
thanks
Ray
thanks
Ray
03-06-2005, 11:22 PM
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Audi A8 by Jurgen Lewandowski
This out-of-print book is available through German Amazon (I think the link is amazon.de) for around 36 Euros plus shipping. It is written in German and English.
Ray
Ray
03-07-2005, 02:49 AM
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Here
They don't have it, just link you to an out-of-print search.
ISBN is 3-7688-0851-3<ul><li><a href="http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/books/audibks.html">5th item on this page</a></li></ul>
ISBN is 3-7688-0851-3<ul><li><a href="http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/books/audibks.html">5th item on this page</a></li></ul>
03-07-2005, 04:12 AM
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A8 Trivia: Here's my Space Frame summary of the book.
In 1986 discussions started about development of the new A8 (internal code D2) in Ingolstadt. Styling of this new luxury sedan should "give it charisma, and create a car that would interpret Audi's design principles more elegantly than ever". Agreed was that the car should have a classic large-car outline. Audi also had a clear idea about the A8's potential owner: (s)he would dislike unnecessary opulence and be in favor of quiet distinction and a degree of understatement.
When choosing a range of body colors, Harmut Warkuss, head of Audi's Styling Department, had a strong preference for silver and black. "The A8 is our top model, and will remain unique among its manufacturer's products."
Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, Director for Technical Development at the time, frequently reminded his peers in the late 70's of a seemingly never-ending build-up of weight of cars produced by the industry. Every new model was more luxuriously equipped than its predecessor. Added luxury and safety features makes a car heavier and therefore requires more power, resulting in stronger and more complex designs. Audi's technical development staff felt that automobile engineering should head in a different direction.
After studying the problem, Audi saw an opportunity to possibly increase the percentage of aluminum used in its car designs in order to save weight. Aluminum is about 40% lighter than steel, equivalent to about 140 Kilograms (309 pounds) of reduced weight in the A8. Because aluminum has a lower modulus of elasticity, additional wall thickness is required by an average factor of 1.7 to 1.8 compared to steel. An added safety advantage is that aluminum sections absorb much more energy per unit of mass when they crumple than the equivalent steel elements.
In the early 1980's, Audi started a successful partnership with the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Both companies had what the other was looking for: Alcoa being the market leader in aluminum production with skills in advanced metallurgy, and Audi a technical pioneer in the automobile industry which already had analyzed use of aluminum in its future products.
The first production car with an all-aluminum body was in fact the Honda NSX, introduced in 1989. Since it was assembled by hand in very small numbers only, the A8 can be considered the world's first mass-produced car to be designed specifically for all-aluminum construction. Another first is that the Audi A8 is the first saloon car with a tiptronic four speed automatic transmission. The A8's Dynamic Shift Program (DSP) memorizes the frequency of various driving conditions and "learns" about a driver's preferences and actual road conditions. Based on this information the DSP adjusts shift points and the transmission's response accordingly.
If an all-aluminum car has so many advantages, why were none ever mass-produced before? Since aluminum in the late 80's still had a range of unknown properties, using the latest computer technology was needed to accomplish this revolution in automobile design within a reasonable budget and timeframe.
One of the development team's experiments with constructing an aluminum body included the use of the Audi 100 production line on Saturdays, when it normally was shutdown. Steel presses were used to shape aluminum versions of Audi 100 panels that later were assembled using a mixture of adhesive bonding and riveting. After a crash test, one of these aluminum prototypes revealed excellent energy absorbing properties, showing that saving weight and safety could only be optimized with a different design approach to suit the "new material". This new approach resulted in the development of the Audi Space Frame (ASF).
The "Space Frame" of the A8 is in fact the fifth generation of Audi's ASF family. It's the result of more than 10 years of development in collaboration with Alcoa. Its frame structure is largely made up of closed-section extrusions, either straight or curved, connected together in most cases at the highly stressed corners and other joints by means of complex pressure-cast elements. In comparison to a steel structure the number of individual body elements has been drastically reduced from 322 to 245, saving tools, workspace and expense. Another advantage of using aluminum over steel is that the amount of production scrap goes down from 60 percent using steel to 15 percent using aluminum. And even this 15 percent is collected from the extrusion plant, melted down and reused in new castings so that the actual scrap rate is close to zero percent.
The ASF concept is highly flexible from a production-engineering standpoint. Modifications can be made easily and cheaply when future model versions are introduced. Besides inert gas welding, self-piercing rivets are used to build up the ASF. Joints on the doors and lids are bonded with single-component adhesives, similar to those used for steel that harden when heated.
Manual work is performed in the following areas:
-assembling and clamping parts into fixtures
-joining parts together by one of the previously described processes
-assembling all add-on elements such as doors and lids
-assembling the rear section of the body
-welding various small assemblies
Robots are used for the following tasks:
-building up the front and rear
-the A-posts
-assembling the front section of the body
-connecting the outer D-posts to the roof
-assembly of the complete body structure
The next stage in the construction process is important to achieve the necessary strength: the entire aluminum body is heat-treated and slowly rolls through a tunnel-like oven at 210 degrees Celsius (410 Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes. The outer panels are then sanded down and cleaned. A cataphoretic dip process is used to apply three-cation phosphatizing coating (Zinc, Nickel, and Manganese) before body is painted. The following paint process and final assembly work is done using conventional automobile production methods.
Besides knowing that an A8 will never rust like steel car bodies do over time, as an A8 owner it's comforting to know that Audi is planning to provide spare parts for the A8 (D2 model) for up to 20 years after the last car rolls off the assembly line.
(Summary written by escapA8 from the book, "Audi A8" by Jürgen Lewandowski. Book out of print.)
When choosing a range of body colors, Harmut Warkuss, head of Audi's Styling Department, had a strong preference for silver and black. "The A8 is our top model, and will remain unique among its manufacturer's products."
Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, Director for Technical Development at the time, frequently reminded his peers in the late 70's of a seemingly never-ending build-up of weight of cars produced by the industry. Every new model was more luxuriously equipped than its predecessor. Added luxury and safety features makes a car heavier and therefore requires more power, resulting in stronger and more complex designs. Audi's technical development staff felt that automobile engineering should head in a different direction.
After studying the problem, Audi saw an opportunity to possibly increase the percentage of aluminum used in its car designs in order to save weight. Aluminum is about 40% lighter than steel, equivalent to about 140 Kilograms (309 pounds) of reduced weight in the A8. Because aluminum has a lower modulus of elasticity, additional wall thickness is required by an average factor of 1.7 to 1.8 compared to steel. An added safety advantage is that aluminum sections absorb much more energy per unit of mass when they crumple than the equivalent steel elements.
In the early 1980's, Audi started a successful partnership with the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Both companies had what the other was looking for: Alcoa being the market leader in aluminum production with skills in advanced metallurgy, and Audi a technical pioneer in the automobile industry which already had analyzed use of aluminum in its future products.
The first production car with an all-aluminum body was in fact the Honda NSX, introduced in 1989. Since it was assembled by hand in very small numbers only, the A8 can be considered the world's first mass-produced car to be designed specifically for all-aluminum construction. Another first is that the Audi A8 is the first saloon car with a tiptronic four speed automatic transmission. The A8's Dynamic Shift Program (DSP) memorizes the frequency of various driving conditions and "learns" about a driver's preferences and actual road conditions. Based on this information the DSP adjusts shift points and the transmission's response accordingly.
If an all-aluminum car has so many advantages, why were none ever mass-produced before? Since aluminum in the late 80's still had a range of unknown properties, using the latest computer technology was needed to accomplish this revolution in automobile design within a reasonable budget and timeframe.
One of the development team's experiments with constructing an aluminum body included the use of the Audi 100 production line on Saturdays, when it normally was shutdown. Steel presses were used to shape aluminum versions of Audi 100 panels that later were assembled using a mixture of adhesive bonding and riveting. After a crash test, one of these aluminum prototypes revealed excellent energy absorbing properties, showing that saving weight and safety could only be optimized with a different design approach to suit the "new material". This new approach resulted in the development of the Audi Space Frame (ASF).
The "Space Frame" of the A8 is in fact the fifth generation of Audi's ASF family. It's the result of more than 10 years of development in collaboration with Alcoa. Its frame structure is largely made up of closed-section extrusions, either straight or curved, connected together in most cases at the highly stressed corners and other joints by means of complex pressure-cast elements. In comparison to a steel structure the number of individual body elements has been drastically reduced from 322 to 245, saving tools, workspace and expense. Another advantage of using aluminum over steel is that the amount of production scrap goes down from 60 percent using steel to 15 percent using aluminum. And even this 15 percent is collected from the extrusion plant, melted down and reused in new castings so that the actual scrap rate is close to zero percent.
The ASF concept is highly flexible from a production-engineering standpoint. Modifications can be made easily and cheaply when future model versions are introduced. Besides inert gas welding, self-piercing rivets are used to build up the ASF. Joints on the doors and lids are bonded with single-component adhesives, similar to those used for steel that harden when heated.
Manual work is performed in the following areas:
-assembling and clamping parts into fixtures
-joining parts together by one of the previously described processes
-assembling all add-on elements such as doors and lids
-assembling the rear section of the body
-welding various small assemblies
Robots are used for the following tasks:
-building up the front and rear
-the A-posts
-assembling the front section of the body
-connecting the outer D-posts to the roof
-assembly of the complete body structure
The next stage in the construction process is important to achieve the necessary strength: the entire aluminum body is heat-treated and slowly rolls through a tunnel-like oven at 210 degrees Celsius (410 Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes. The outer panels are then sanded down and cleaned. A cataphoretic dip process is used to apply three-cation phosphatizing coating (Zinc, Nickel, and Manganese) before body is painted. The following paint process and final assembly work is done using conventional automobile production methods.
Besides knowing that an A8 will never rust like steel car bodies do over time, as an A8 owner it's comforting to know that Audi is planning to provide spare parts for the A8 (D2 model) for up to 20 years after the last car rolls off the assembly line.
(Summary written by escapA8 from the book, "Audi A8" by Jürgen Lewandowski. Book out of print.)
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03-07-2005, 05:34 AM
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Re: Audi A8 by Jurgen Lewandowski
I bought mine of Ebay here in the US along with The Silver Arrows book.
Got a good price on it and it was in excellent condition. Interesting read, especially liked some of the initial drawings.
Got a good price on it and it was in excellent condition. Interesting read, especially liked some of the initial drawings.
03-07-2005, 07:27 AM
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Re: Comparison of Audi's Aluminum Space Frame to
Hi Randy,
These two photos and the short article are very interesting but I'm not sure how to interpret them in terms of comparative safety.
By the way i sure like your photo!
These two photos and the short article are very interesting but I'm not sure how to interpret them in terms of comparative safety.
By the way i sure like your photo!
