Innovation challenges in Dasle and in Delle:

LISI AUTOMOTIVE Collaborative Innovation is being rolled-out in our factories, with a pilot in the BGTF.

For the moment, we have launched innovation challenges in Dasle and Delle. The aim is to collect the ideas of all employees on one specific theme, that will be renewed several times a year. Several « Ideas Boxes » have been set up in each factory. The first theme is:

« What innovations or changes in the set-up, machines and parts movements to manufacture optimally in Dasle/Delle? »

We look forward to the many innovative ideas from each and every one of you! 🙂

Second innovation contest:

The second innovation contest of LISI AUTOMOTIVE was launched in June. The contest had two subjects:

• General theme: « According to you, how could we make greater use digital tools within LISI AUTOMOTIVE to work together more efficiently? »
• Engineers’ corner: « How to generate an adjusting element for a lighting application? »

Lots of ideas have been submitted to this contest. Many thanks for your involvement!

The innovation committee has selected one main idea for the general theme, that will be further developed. This idea has been submitted by Pascal Ronot, and concerns « Knowledge management: creation of an application where each employee could register (at his discretion) and detail his profile and skills (with keywords). And as soon as someone has a problem, he can « post » it on the application with the corresponding keywords. And the problem is addressed (by email) directly and only to the people with the skills. The latter can then propose solutions… »

Working groups will also be organized to develop ideas that have been submitted to the engineers’ corner. The third innovation contest will be launched soon, stay tuned!

Beating creep – New innovative threaded fasteners for plastic and composite materials

As OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers continue to push back the boundaries on the use of plastic and composite parts in the vehicle, new fastening challenges appear, and LISI AUTOMOTIVE is busy innovating to provide the appropriate assembly solutions!

In applications where a significant pre-tensioning force is required, the long polymer chain structure of plastic and composite materials is prone to creep under stress, and can lead to loosening of the assembly. LISI AUTOMOTIVE now offers multiple solutions to avoid this problem – such as anti-creep rings, metal inserts and various bolt-spacer-nut combinations – and continues to invent new solutions.

Our teams recently patented a solution for a bolt with a sleeve made captive via a special thread-rolling operation. This innovative product allows the sleeve to bear the majority of the load when fastening a composite component to the engine block for Daimler cars, thereby eliminating the risk of creep and loosening of the component despite high temperatures.

The sleeve will be manufactured in DASLE and the screw and assembly in KIERSPE.

Congratulations to Christian Schomacher and Carmine Lavarra for this patent!