by Zachary Peterson
> Associate Editor
"We're not a materials company,"
says Alaa Elmoursi, Eaton's ( eaton.
com ) senior technology manager for
materials and processing technology at
the company's innovation center a few
miles north of Detroit. In its automotive
business, Eaton is a supplier of a variety
of products including valve systems,
superchargers, and diferentials. "We
work with existing materials to select
Eaton has found ways to save
weight by using plastics and
metal together in diferential
parts, and to leverage com
-
posites exclusively
for applications in its
superchargers for small,
sub-liter engines.
this way to make it clear that when it
comes to materials, he does not have
favorites.
And while it might once have been a
focus on a specifc type of material
for a specifc part, a major focus area
for Eaton is the combining of metal
materials with plastics to create hybrid
structures.
the proper additives, proper fllers to
make them suited for solving customer
problems like lightweighting, improving
efciency, and reducing noise and
vibration."
We're here to discuss innovations in
plastics that Elmoursi and his team of
engineers, scientists and chemists are
working on, but he opens the discussion
AD&P; > March 2014 > FEATURE > Saving Pounds with Plastic-Metal Hybrids > Zachary Peterson > zpeterson@autofeldguide.com
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