Schaeffler to Exhibit Innovative Techs at Next Year’s NAIAS

With the highly anticipated 2016 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit just around the corner, Schaeffler is now gearing up to showcase its premier innovations and technologies that make automobiles safer, more comfortable and eco-friendlier. The German company, with its complete range of products for transmission, engine and chassis applications, is making a pivotal contribution towards “mobility for tomorrow”.

Schaeffler will also host a press conference at 7:10 a.m. on Jan. 11 in the Ambassador Ballroom (third floor/room 360) of Cobo Center during NAIAS’s Press Preview. At the event, the company’s executives will tackle the global supplier’s solution to both regional and global challenges: the enhancement of combustion engine-related drivetrains, electrification and hybridization as well as its growth and development plans for North America.

Apart from its engine, transmission and chassis products, Schaeffler’s technology showcase will include a “glass car” that contains nearly 40 products and technologies to give visitors a clear insight into the firm’s innovations. The model comes with movable screens covering the entire length of the glass vehicle and can be used as a kind of “x-ray scanner” to know more about the different drivetrain components.

Mobility requirements vary in different parts of the world. However, the environmental compatibility and energy efficiency of mobility solutions globally depends on how the respective vehicle drivers are designed.

According to Marc McGrath, president of automotive North America for Schaeffler, the company offers an array of products that are customized to suit the preferences and requirements of inpidual regions. He claimed that the formula for their success is development work across national borders and sectors.

The trend for enhanced efficiency and the drivetrain’s intensive electrification specifies the technological path that drive architectures should follow. In this context, Schaeffler takes into account the electrical components, the internal combustion engine and the transmission as a whole, with specific focus being placed on the improvement of the internal combustion engine. The thermal management module (TMM) plays a crucial role in the reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The TMM has come a long way after its successful market roll-outs in Europe and Asia, as it is now slated to go into volume production on the North American market.

Schaeffler’s transmission technologies play a pivotal role in this market. New transmissions use increasingly high numbers of speeds—with up to 10 speeds presently available—and enable engine operation in the optimum area of the datamap. Damping concepts, such as the centrifugal pendulum-type absorber, enable vibrations to be reduced and speeds to be decreased as a way of enhancing fuel consumption. The latest development is a combined torque converter and a centrifugal pendulum-type absorber.

Moreover, North America is seeing a growing demand for drivetrain electrification solutions – an area where Schaeffler has a wide range of products and technologies. For instance, Schaeffler has developed a variation on the P2 hybrid module with an integrated torque converter for the market. This high-voltage solution embodies a blend of the company’s know-how in the fields of hybrid technologies and torque converters, and is anticipated to be in use in a North American light truck five years from now.

The array of products to be displayed in NAIAS, from January 11 to 24, will be rounded out by products for 48V hybridization, which offers a cost-effective solution to enable fully-electric driving at low speeds.