Visteon Defines the Future of Automotive Design With Superintegration(TM)

FRANKFURT, Germany (PROTEXT) - Visteon Automotive Systems is leading an automotive industry revolution with Superintegration(TM) -- an innovative technology destined to define the future of automotive design. With Visteon's unsurpassed Superintegration technology, automotive manufacturers have a remarkable opportunity to completely redesign vehicle systems to save weight and cost, improve space and packaging, and incorporate leading-edge technologies to maximize quality and reliability. "Visteon's Superintegration capabilities are unparalleled in the industry," said Stephen Delaney, vice president, Interior and Exterior systems, Visteon. "In fact, automotive manufacturers recently rated Visteon the top systems integrator among all automotive suppliers." In developing Superintegration, Visteon made fundamental changes in its organizational thinking, technology innovations, and ideas about modularity. The results have vastly improved Visteon's ability to reconfigure vehicle features to meet the needs and interests of consumers. Other benefits include: * 30 percent weight savings * 20 percent cost improvements * 30 percent quality improvements * 50 percent faster product development time * 50 percent fewer number of parts "In working at the highest level of Superintegration, we have set aside assumptions about what is and isn't possible in the design and manufacture of vehicles, and have advanced the entire industry," Delaney concluded. Suppliers around the world face an ever increasing demand from automotive manufacturers to deliver a higher degree of value in their products. Visteon's Superintegration capabilities allow the organization to deliver customer systems that have been designed as integrated solutions from the outset. Unlike some efforts to assemble disparate modules into a system, Visteon experts engineer an entire system -- such as the integrated cockpit -- as a single unit designed to meet the unique needs of customers. "Visteon's Superintegration is truly a culmination of the extraordinary systems integration expertise we offer to our customers," said Visteon President Craig Muhlhauser. "We have every strategic capability necessary to produce the most advanced integrated systems available today -- this is the future of automotive systems design." Visteon's vast technological resources and broad systems expertise have carried the Superintegration concept to new levels: * The current level in development of Superintegration incorporates a magnesium cross car beam in the cockpit which reduces weight and allows manufacturers to integrate a number of brackets into the beam casting process. The cockpit uses fewer parts, improves sound and vibration deadening and increases the space available for storage and vehicle functions. Air ducts are integrated; electronics are partially integrated. The design begins to move away from conventional round wire and introduces some usage of flat-wire technology. This cockpit has a fully integrated and fully featured instrument cluster with five gauges, warning lights and message center. * The next level of Superintegration will integrate module electronics, housings, brackets and heatsinks in the cockpit. Flatwire or autoneural technology will be incorporated throughout this cockpit. Because electronics are shared throughout this cockpit, the radio will be integrated into the module and will no longer be a box, resulting in tremendous space savings. Other systems, such as the air conditioning system, will be fully integrated into the cockpit. * Beyond that, future levels of Superintegration will advance electronic design by functionally combining the electronics, wire harness, connectors and modules. This will be achieved by 'populating' the electronics directly onto the flatwire, eliminating the need for circuit boards. This technology, developed, designed and patented by Visteon, is unique in the supplier industry and will offer Visteon customers the capability to incorporate the most advanced technologies into their vehicle designs. "We believe Superintegration is a vitally important technology for vehicle manufacturers," said Dave Scroggie, Interior Systems and Superintegration manager, Visteon. "We can help our customers meet the demands of their customers by improving quality, saving cost and weight, and opening up space for even more features." "Superintegration also offers vehicle manufacturers a level of plug-and- play flexibility which they currently don't have in conventional cockpits," Scroggie continued. "And we are using advanced Computer Aided Engineering tools to design these systems and insure that they meet and exceed our customers design expectations." With a global delivery system of more than 125 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 21 countries, Visteon Automotive Systems is leveraging the talents of its 77,000 employees to deliver innovative, consumer-driven systems solutions to its customers. ots Original Text Service: Visteon Automotive Systems Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Giavanna M. Palazzolo of Visteon, 313-317-9121, or gpalazzo@visteon.com Web site: http://media.visteon.com Web site: http://www.visteon.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. 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