United States Automotive Materials Partnership (USAMP)

To develop lighweight materials for improved automotive fuel economy.

• Polymer composites (ACC)

• Light metals (Al, Mg, metal matrix composites)

• Engineered plastics

• Cast iron

• Steel

• Ceramics

Lightweight vehicle

• Negotiated cooperative agreement with DOE for $30 M over 5 years

• Conducted PNGV Goal 3 composites and aluminum supplier workshops

• Successful cart crash of Escort composite front end

• Completed design phase of Focal Project II composite pickup box (28% weight save and cost equal to steel plus liner)

• Completed second edition of Materials Characterization Test Procedures manual and obtained SAE approval as industry standard

Low Emissions Technologies R&D Partnership(LEP) Engine Support Systems Technologies (ESST)

Identify enabling technologies for improvements in emissions in the following areas:

• Fuel preparation and control, combustion and HC control

• Cold bag aftertreatment, OBDII, 100K compliance

• Evaporative emissions control

Efficient/ low emissions powertrain

• Demonstrated feasibility of spray formed tooling using low melting point alloys

• Produced test sections of dual wall manifolds to support cold start emissions reduction

• Developed hydrous metal oxide materials for NO_x reduction catalysts

• Developed three new catalyst systems based on Sol-gel/Aerogel technology

• Established world-class lean burn and diesel catalyst evaluation facilities at the Oak Ridge National Lab

Environmental Research Consortium (ERC)

• To develop common emissions testing instrumentation and methods

• Improve the understanding of vehicle and mfg. emission on the environment

• Reduce environmental impact of mfg. emissions

• Reduce worker exposure to mfg. emissions

Efficient/low emissions powertrain and manufacturing processes

Emissions Research:

• Canister purge and modal mini-diluter developed

• Prototype instruments developed

• Reference ULEV vehicle built

Emissions Assessment:

• Georgia Tech/EPA on-road vehicle emissions measured/analyzed

• Michigan Remote Sensing Project assessed remote sensing accuracy and high emission vehicle repair effectiveness

Atmospheric Modeling:

• Modeling runs identified differences in ground level ozone and agreement on the impact of HC and NO_x controls