几十年来，工程师们一直在寻找降低组件和装配重量的方法，以创造更环保、更经济的产品。随着生产工艺和原材料的发展，通常可以通过利用更优化的选择来制造产品，以更少的材料满足性能要求，或者完全省略某些材料。
轻量化历来是汽车和航空航天工业中优化燃油效率的主要关注点。这导致当今现代电动汽车的电池续航里程更好，飞机的有效载荷增加。随着其他行业转向更环保、更高效、更舒适的解决方案，轻量化现在是消费类设备、医疗设备等制造商和设计人员的共同目标。
什么是轻量化？
轻量化是从组件或装配体上减轻重量的过程。设计师和制造商以以下三种方式之一制造轻量化产品：
Substituting materials:
The most common approach to lightweighting is to replace heavier materials with less dense and/or stronger materials and components. With the right design, heavy materials like metals can be replaced with thermally conductive plastics or ceramics. High density, heavy weight fiberglass insulation can be replaced with low density polyimide foam, like SOLIMIDE(R) Foam, in marine and aerospace applications. Engineers constantly source and formulate new materials to meet stringent performance requirements at the lowest possible weight, so reconsidering the materials used in an assembly is an important recurring focus for manufacturers.
Optimizing designs:
Instead of substituting materials, another way to remove weight is by implementing different technologies or improving a preexisting design.
Eliminating materials:
As production processes and materials evolve, components can often be removed from assemblies entirely while still meeting structural, flammability, and thermal requirements. This often goes together with optimizing designs, such as removing cumbersome mechanical fasteners from an assembly by using adhesive-backed foam. We leverage our extensive material selection, manufacturing capabilities, and design expertise to create multilayer stack-ups that combine multiple features into a single component, further helping to eliminate materials from an assembly.
为什么它很重要？
轻量化对各行各业都有深远的影响。在汽车、电动汽车、运输和航空航天领域，降低整体装配重量可提高燃料或能源效率，并降低总体环境足迹。在消费电子和医疗行业中，减轻可穿戴或手持设备的重量可以提高用户的舒适度，延长充电间隔时间，并降低运输成本。对于工业和农业应用，减轻重量有助于提高整体有效载荷和农业产量，从而提高整体效率和盈利能力。
随着对安全性、可持续性和效率的要求越来越严格，轻量化正成为每个新产品的重点。优化重量可以减少浪费，降低成本并增强产品功能。
宝德的不同之处
Boyd的工程师没有专注于去除或替代单一材料，而是采用集成方法来应对轻量化挑战。我们广泛的供应商关系和创新的设计支持使我们能够指导设计决策，从而降低整体装配重量，同时确保满足所有性能要求。我们的工程师在设计制造组件 （DFM） 和优化装配方面拥有数十年的经验。Boyd的全球分支机构还通过减少组件的必要运输和提供垂直集成解决方案来帮助降低整体足迹。
要了解有关 Boyd 如何帮助您解决轻量化挑战的更多信息，请安排与我们的专家咨询。
