Tracks to Treads : Tank Center Is Teaming up With Auto Makers to Design Car of Future

Just north of Detroit, 12 Mile Road slices through this sprawling suburb, offering a passing glimpse at the heart of the U.S. auto industry.

On one side is General Motors’ Technical Center, where the nation’s largest auto maker does research. On the other sits the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command, a development center for combat and military support vehicles.

Both facilities have been nerve-centers of new vehicle development for decades, but the car builders and tank designers rarely acknowledged each other’s existence.

Today, the isolation is giving way to collaboration.

At Tacom, where the appropriately named Arsenal Avenue and Experimental Lane converge, officials once obsessed with turret guns and heavy armor are taking aim on a new target--the car of the future.

Last month, President Clinton and the Big Three auto makers announced an unprecedented government-business agreement to develop a super fuel-efficient vehicle--the so-called clean car--within a decade.

The technological leaps needed for such a vehicle--capable of getting up to 80 miles per gallon--may come from unlocking research secrets of hundreds of national laboratories and sharing them with GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Tacom illustrates the technological promise of such cooperation--as well as its uncertainty. In fact, exactly how the research lab can help the auto makers, and vice versa, remains a bit murky, even to those who have a bird’s eye view of each partner’s capabilities.

“I don’t think we know yet how much help we can give the auto industry,” said Alexander Farkas, director of Tacom’s National Automotive Center, formed last year to facilitate joint research and technology transfer between the Army and the auto industry.

In announcing the clean-car consortium Sept. 29, the White House said Tacom would provide “virtual prototyping” technology that could reduce the costs of vehicle design and manufacturing--key ingredients in making a highly fuel-efficient auto affordable.

Virtual prototyping uses powerful computer systems to simulate three-dimensional designs. It allows vehicles to be designed and tested on a computer screen quickly and cheaply without having to produce numerous prototypes. It also can help refine manufacturing and assembly processes and even be used for crash tests.

At Tacom, for instance, engineers are using virtual prototyping to redesign the 1,500 horsepower engine and transmission that drives the M1-A1 tank. The tank weighs 65 tons and requires a great deal of heavy armor for protection.

Army researchers say they have used the process to design much smaller and lighter engines with equal power. The goal is to reduce the tank’s weight to 50 tons.

“It’s a weight-watchers program,” said Ram Chandra, chief of Tacom’s computer-aided design branch.

Such technology holds promise to U.S. auto makers, who must reduce drastically the weight of today’s cars to improve fuel economy. In addition, they need methods to speed development and production cycles--major factors in vehicle cost.

“We do the whole process with computers without having to bend metal,” explained Robert Halle, chief of Tacom’s integration center division. “It allows us to make mistakes more cheaply.”

Whether such mistakes will lead to the technology breakthroughs that the Administration wants remains to be seen. A major concern is whether a more fuel-efficient car can perform and be priced comparably to today’s vehicles.

Indeed, some are skeptical of the project, noting that such technology will be too expensive and the auto makers must only produce prototypes. The Administration admits that the program is risky.

Tacom, which manages 650,000 military vehicles and has an annual budget of $4.9 billion, hopes to become the instrument through which all defense-related technology is funneled to the auto industry.

“I see our role as being the main conduit from the defense establishment,” said Kenneth Oscar, director of Tacom’s Research, Development and Engineering Center. “There are many areas where we can help them.”

Tacom has identified several projects involving propulsion, electronics, composites and other technologies that could have use in the auto industry.

For instance, Tacom researchers have developed ceramic coatings for engine components that allow higher combustion temperatures. That could increase fuel efficiency by improving engine burn.

The defense unit is also working on a hybrid battery system for military vehicles. The project involves the use of high-energy capacitors for starting diesel engines. Such a system could provide an alternative to lead-acid battery systems for electric cars.

But officials are uncertain if these technologies are appropriate for the clean-car project or can be adapted for commercial use.

“We come from a different culture,” acknowledges Oscar. “Our main concern is survivability of the soldier. So performance comes first, cost second. For the auto industry, cost comes first and performance second.”

One promising technology is virtual prototyping, which was demonstrated to several visitors on a recent tour of Tacom’s facilities.

Traditionally, engineers design a vehicle or component on a drawing board, using two-dimensional blueprints. A prototype is produced from these drawings using costly, disposable tooling. If there is a problem, it can take months to redesign and reproduce the model.

But with virtual prototyping, engineers use a sophisticated computer-aided design system to produce three-dimensional models on a screen. The computer allows for easy manipulation and testing of a large component or vehicle, helping eliminate possible design flaws.

Still, there may be synergies. The Big Three are already experimenting with techniques similar to virtual prototyping. In March, Ford displayed a “rapid prototyping” system that allows direct fabrication of parts from computer-generated designs.

Ford officials said the new system offers “significant cost savings” and improved production-part quality over traditional prototyping, because design flaws can be corrected as they are spotted.

Virtual and rapid prototyping are closely related to virtual reality technology, which produces three-dimensional computer images that give the appearance of reality. A vehicle designer--wearing glasses tied to a powerful computer--can feel as if he is sitting in the driver’s seat and see, for instance, how an instrument panel fits.

All the applications of virtual prototyping have not been explored. Tacom wants to use the technology to stage war games, eliminating the costly expense of mobilizing troops over vast distances for training maneuvers. Ford sees uses in simulating crash tests.

“We are talking about saving a lot of money,” Ford spokesman Mark Miller said.

Another area where costs can be reduced is in manufacturing processes. “We can refine a manufacturing process on the computer before the first piece goes on the line,” said David Sloss, head of automotive technologies for Tacom’s research unit.

While it is unclear if Tacom’s technologies can be adapted by the auto makers to produce a more efficient car, officials are optimistic about the prospects that they can help push the envelope further.

“There’s a new generation of vehicles coming,” said Farkas. “And we are going to be a catalyst in that national effort.”