TI puts focus on fast, regional prototyping

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.—To meet demand for rapid prototyping across the scope of new vehicle architectures, TI Fluid Systems has opened a new 48,000-sq.-ft. e-Mobility Innovation Center at its Auburn Hills corporate headquarters.

The expansion is the fifth and "final" addition to TI's global e-Mobility centers—and "the most shiny one," Johannes Helmich, chief technology officer of TI Fluid Systems, told Plastics News in an interview.

At the new Auburn Hills eMIC, TI's customers, including Stellantis' Fiat Chrysler brands, General Motors and Hyundai, have locations and representatives nearby.

"They're coming with challenges … where they really need our help," Helmich said. "(In the internal combustion engine business), typically (suppliers) got a specification from the customer and provided the product.

"With these new architectures (for hybrid, hydrogen or battery electric vehicle models) … the customer does not have the specification."

"The customer comes to you expecting that you have the technology and the right product," Helmich said during a June 25 presentation at the new center. "Even they don't know what they want.

"Typically developing products for customers and provide hardware takes up to six months," he said.

At TI's eMICs, "we can do it in less than two weeks," Helmich said.

The center features virtual engineering, designing, processing, prototyping, product testing and vehicle testing all under one roof, Hemlich said. TI can retrofit a part within the customer's market vehicle architecture using on-site vehicle lifts that allow employees to perform tests quickly.

The facility also features 3D printing and injection molding systems for rapid prototyping of fully functioning components and systems.

The eMICs' goal, Hemlich said, is having an understanding which of its products work best with upcoming mobility architecture.

"For example … we see that brake lines are a product which is needed on an ICE, on a (hybrid), and also in a BEV architecture," he said.

TI's fuel tanks business—about 40 percent of its offerings—is also growing, for both ICE and hybrids, Hemlich added. Thermal management remains a focus across all vehicle architecture styles, but especially in BEVs, it affects their efficiency and range.

TI's other eMICs—located in Rastatt, Germany; Shanghai; Incheon, South Korea; and Nagoya, Japan—cater to each region's specific market trends, Helmich said. Each regional center allows engineers and customers to meet in person to address concerns, future requirements and technology trends.

The various global markets are different, he said. Demand for "BEV is really massive, really growing … in Asia-Pacific, especially in China … while in Europe, BEVs are (in demand) as well, but it's not as strong."

In the U.S. market, ICE and hybrid vehicles are still most popular, with just a "small portion" of BEV on the market, Helmich said.

"You have to be in the region to jointly develop those technologies because everybody's doing something different at the end of the day."

The markets being diversified "makes it more challenging for the OEMs to come up with a solid business model of how to produce all of these different architectures," he added. It's also challenging for suppliers to be flexible enough to provide support for each of the technologies.

"(TI) can provide from a line connector up to these modules and thermal management systems … but we also have classic brake lines; we have classical tanks as well, so we can cover … everything."

The automotive industry's move toward electrification and sustainable practices created a "need to have a different form of collaboration, both with (TI's) own employees and with our customers. … We need to step away … from the dusty design department," Hans Dieltjens, president and CEO of TI Fluid Systems, said during the presentation. "We need to think differently."

TI hopes the centers will attract engineering talent with experience in new technologies like simulation and electronics to combine with its core competencies, Helmich said.

Its thermal management modules are "not just a piece of plastic; it's mechatronics. There's the flow control and orientation," which need both TI's history in injection and blow molding, and the "fresh thinking" of the next generation.

"We're working with new generations … of engineers that have different expectations (of) work environments of how to collaborate, how to operate for the future," Dieltjens said. "New engineers are looking for … digitalization. They're looking for a level of flexibility … and a more collaborative environment where they can strive in these new product lines."

The construction of five eMICs underlines the company's commitment to helping customers remain competitive in a fast-changing automotive market, Dieltjens said.

TI declined to comment on the cost of its investment to build the global innovation centers.

TI Fluid Systems has 8,600 employees and 21 manufacturing locations in the Americas, including 12 locations in the U.S. It supplies fuel systems, lines and connectors and thermal management solutions for internal combustion engine vehicles and thermal management solutions for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles. It operates across 27 countries.