2004 technology in review

AEI editors look back at some of the most significant engineering and innovation stories of the past year.

General Motors did not want to abandon the huge market for under-$20,000 vehicles, even if it meant coming up with as many variants from a single platform as necessary to make the effort profitable. And so it developed a new small rear-drive platform/architecture-Kappa-and for openers has four possible vehicles for it including the 2006 Pontiac Solstice. The Solstice price point dictates steel for the body panels, and GM will use an advanced version of sheet-metal hydroforming to make them. It is a process that for low-volume production has the potential to substantially lower costs while offering stylists the shaping flexibility they could not get with conventional pressing. Individual panels for some low-volume cars also have been hydroformed, and the process continues in limited use today. However, the Solstice will be the first car of significant volume to be made almost entirely with hydroformed inner and outer sheet-metal body panels. The 10-50% lower cost of the dies and the ability to retain single-piece large stampings can offset the lack of speed in the process. If the same shapes were attempted with conventional presses, some of those panels would have to be made in three, four, or even more pieces, then welded together.