Pink Fact of the Days

Although the breast cancer diagnosis rate has increased, there has been a steady drop in the overall breast cancer death rate since the early 1990's.

Chevrolet Showcases Spark EV Electric Motor

WIXOM, Mich. –   From home appliances to children’s toys, electric motors are all around us and have nearly a century of automotive use dating to Charles Kettering’s invention of the electric starter first used in 1912. With the emergence of electric vehicles, electric motors also will play a bigger part in future vehicles.

“We’ve spent the past few years highlighting our in-house battery capability, which will play a significant role as one of our core competencies going forward,” said Larry Nitz, GM executive director of Vehicle Electrification Engineering. "Electric motor development and manufacturing is another area of expertise we’ll need as we expand vehicle electrification technologies to address the needs of our customers around the world.”

Chevrolet is highlighting its expertise in electric motors at a pilot facility in Wixom, a Detroit suburb, in advance of beginning the domestic production of electric motors at GM’s plant in White Marsh, Md., near Baltimore in late 2012. Specifically, equipment and processes to be used at White Marsh are being validated and tested in Wixom. 

Conventionally powered vehicles on the road today have a variety of electric motors to power seats, windows, windshield washers and other functions. Electric motors are used in hybrid and electric vehicles to move the drive wheels to propel the vehicle.  Electricity is stored in a battery and feeds power to the electric motor to drive the wheels.

GM is focused on the development of permanent magnet and induction motors for a variety of applications. During a recent tutorial at the Wixom facility, news media were given the opportunity to hand build portions of a permanent magnet motor, the exact 85 kW (114 hp) permanent magnet motor configuration that will be used in the recently announced Chevrolet Spark electric vehicle to debut in 2013. 

The White Marsh facility will produce electric motors for the Spark  and other future vehicles. Currently, GM uses electric motors as part of the propulsion system in nine vehicles including the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Malibu Eco, Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid, Buick Lacrosse eAssist, Buick Regal eAssist, GMC Sierra Hybrid, GMC Yukon and Yukon Denali Hybrid, and Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

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With Chevrolet Traverse, Quality Never Takes a Back Seat

Robotic tests mimic customer use to enhance seat quality, comfort and durability

DETROIT – Vehicle seats do more than just cradle an occupant. A seat is also a makeshift knee rest, a stepladder, a desk, a tray and sometimes, a bed. Most of all, it should address the occasional mayhem of life with comfort, style and sturdiness.

The seats in the Chevrolet Traverse have been stomped on, crushed, and pressed thousands of times to ensure they stand up to the rigorous demands placed on them. 

Long before the Traverse went on sale, General Motors engineers put the seats of the eight-passenger crossover through an intense series of tests to ensure high quality, maximum comfort and long-term durability. 

GM seat validation engineer Mario Zaccagnini and his team used state-of-the-art robotic technology to test the comfort and integrity of the seat cushions, as well as the seat frames and their attachments to the vehicle body.  The robots simulated a variety of body types entering, sitting and exiting the vehicle. Programmed to mimic the range of motion of actual customers, the robots are sort of a cyber derriere. Front seats underwent up to 50,000 entry-and-exit test cycles representing more than 10 years of typical customer use.

Rear seats are subjected to testing regiments as well, including the Seat Adjuster Easy Entry Durability Test. GM engineers designed the industry first Smart Slide® second-row seat so that a 7-year-old child could safely unlock and move the seat out of the way.

“It was mandatory for us to maintain the quality of the mechanism of the seat but at the same time enable passengers, especially younger ones, to easily access the third-row seats”, Zaccagnini said. His team’s validation plan involved sliding the second-row seats fore and aft 15,000 times equal to more than a lifetime of use and abuse. 

Zaccagnini and his colleagues know that Traverse customers frequently kneel on seats to retrieve packages, groceries and children from other parts of the vehicle.  To ensure seats hold up to heavy knee use, the team used a knee-form plunger that simulates a human knee pushing down and applying force on different parts of the seat cushions. This helped engineers assess the long-term integrity of the seat cushion foam, fabric, suspension system and seat warmers. Engineers subjected the cushions to well over a decade’s worth of knee load exposure – a total of 30,000 robotic test cycles.

Some of these cycles were performed in extreme conditions with temperatures ranging from 5° F to 140° F and humidity of up to 80 percent.

“With a family vehicle, we think creatively about how a seat is going to be used,” said Zaccagnini. “Knowing that family life means ‘expect the unexpected,’ we go the extra mile to deliver seats that satisfy customer needs in all situations.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free" solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown.