Center for Creative Studies Student Designs Combine Consumer Preference, Steel Industry Architecture
16 September 1997
Center for Creative Studies Student Designs Combine Consumer Preference, Steel Industry Architecture
Center for Creative Studies transportation design students participate in
Ninth annual steel industry summer intern program
DETROIT, Sept. 16 -- Four transportation design students have
successfully combined consumers' preference for sportiness, control, power and
safety with an innovative vehicle architecture to provide an eye-catching
vision of tomorrow's pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
The four students from the Center for Creative Studies-College of Art and
Design (CCS-CAD) Transportation Design Program designed and executed proposals
for concept vehicles as part of the ninth annual summer intern program
sponsored by American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
The students relied on industry research and their own judgment about
consumer preferences and had to integrate them into the steel industry's Light
Truck Structure (LTS) architecture.
LTS offers vehicle manufacturers a way to design and manufacture a family
of SUV, compact pickup and extended cab variants on the same production line.
LTS provides a lightweight, low cost approach to producing these vehicles.
The steel industry commissioned the LTS study on SUVs and light trucks
following its success with its UltraLight Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) project for
cars. SUVs, light trucks and minivans account for nearly one-half of all
vehicle sales.
Steel industry specialists and automotive engineers briefed the students
early in the summer on technical specifications and design package criteria
for the LTS architecture.
"Working within the constraints of the LTS engineering package was the
biggest challenge for the student designers this summer," explained Carl
Olsen, chair, Transportation Design Program, CCS. "This exercise taught the
students about the trade-offs involved between engineers and designers in the
development of a new vehicle."
The four interns, Henry Chang of San Raphael, Calif., Martin Davis, of
Detroit, Mich., Tim Kozub, of Walled Lake, Mich., and Matt Tandrup, of Duluth,
Ga., unveiled their models to AISI representatives, automotive designers, and
the news media today.
The AISI/CCS internship program provides the students with valuable
experience working on automotive designs, as well as important knowledge of
steel's unique attributes. This year, they visited an automotive laser
welding factory to learn more about the various forming and joining techniques
of steel,
"We find the internship program to be extremely beneficial to the
students," explained Darryl Martin, Director, Automotive Applications, AISI.
"The experience gives them a better understanding of how cost, lightweighting
and material selection impacts a vehicle design."
The Center for Creative Studies provides an internationally prominent
environment for educating artists, designers, musicians and dancers. The CCS-
College of Art and Design is one of the nation's leading private, degree-
granting visual arts schools with programs in crafts, fine arts, graphic
communication, industrial design, and photography. Pre-college and community
education in music and dance is offered through the CCS-Institute of Music and
Dance.
American Iron and Steel Institute is a non-profit association of North
American companies engaged in the iron and steel industry. The Institute
comprises 49 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace
steelmakers, as well as 157 associate, and affiliate members who are suppliers
to or customers of the steel industry.
SOURCE Center for Creative Studies
