Honda says its new method will eliminate spot welding in auto door construction. Image: BlackZero_007/Flickr/CC BY

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. says it has a developed a new method of welding aluminum and steel together, opening the door for far-lighter automotive construction.

Honda makes lighter doors for Acura RLX

The Japanese car maker announced Tuesday, Feb. 19, that it has found a way to meld aluminum and steel without facing electrical corrosion issues, which has been an elusive alchemical philosopher’s stone for automotive engineers.

Combining steel with aluminum will allow automakers to keep the steel structural strength needed for safety in a vehicle’s door panels. At the same time, by using an aluminum outer panel to lower the weight of the vehicle, fuel economy can be increased.

The automaker says that vehicle door panels constructed using its new method will see about a 17 percent reduction in weight from current methods. That reduction at the outer side of the vehicle will also improve stability by focusing the point of gravity closer to the vehicle’s center.

American car buyers can take advantage of the new process as early as March, when the new Acura RLX will hit dealerships like Howdy Honda in Austin, TX. The technology will be used for other Honda and Acura models as time progresses, and the growth of microfinance through such companies as Personal Money Network enables more people to buy cars.

Three hurdles

Honda’s engineers had to tackle three large hurdles in the development of the new process. First, it needed to find a way to join metals with dissimilar properties. For that, it developed the “3D Lock Seam,” which bolsters seams with double-hemming steel. Second, it needed to address the electrical corrosion that has plagued earlier attempts to mesh the two metals. To that effort, it has come up with an anti-corrosive steel, as well as a “new form that assures the complete filling of the gap with adhesive agent.” Lastly, Honda needed to find a way to prevent thermal deformation. That was countered with an “adhesive agent with low elastic modulus and optimized position of the 3D Lock Seam.”

Honda says the new process eliminates spot welding and, since it requires no dedicated process, can be adapted easily to current manufacturing methods.

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An earlier process

The announcement is similar to one Honda made in September 2012, when it announced its “Friction Stir Welding” process to meld steel and aluminum in the construction of a vehicle’s front sub-frame. That process was first seen in the 2013 Accord.

At the time, Honda said the then-new technology, “generates a new and stable metallic bonding between steel and aluminum by moving a rotating tool on the top of the aluminum which is lapped over the steel with high pressure.”

Automakers are in a race to find ways to increase fuel efficiency before 2025, when federal mandates kick in, requiring all new cars to achieve 54.5 miles per gallon. Efforts to reduce the weight of vehicles is part of that move.