Johnson Controls puts in $1.25 bn bid for Visteon businesses
It wants to buy Visteon's electronics and interiors business to add to its own, and the big prize is extra penetration of the Chinese market
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Lear's seven innovations take 25 lb out of automotive seat
New seating unveiled for 2011 by Lear makes weight savings through design and use of different materials
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Magna sets up seating venture in India
It's joining the Indian group Krishna to set up a manufacturing plant for car seats in the Pune region
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Bigger
share for biological plastics on the cards
in 2009
Toyota wants what it terms "Ecological
Plastic" to account for 60 per cent of
interior items on cars where it is used
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Whiplash
test indicates 80% of seats need improving
Euro NCAP puts front seats from 25 recent
cars through its new whiplash injury test
and finds that only five of them are star
performers
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Honda hybrid
will tell drivers how fuel efficient they
are
Dashboard system will show drivers when they're
driving in optimum way and rate their performance
over the long term too
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Innovative
heat exchanger increases aircon efficiency
Visteon says its new design boosts performance
by 14 per cent and works on the newer refriger
ants too
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Mazda
claims weight and recycle benefits for foam
plastics
New technique puts supercritical fluids
into resins to make recyclable lightweight
foamed plastics
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French
group starts production of new refrigerant
gas
Arkema has started up production of R1234yf,
an automotive air-conditioning gas that
it intends will replace the global warming
HFC134a
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Opel
claims first with traffic sign detection
unit
GM's European arm has been working with
Hella on a system that will flash up speed
signs and other relevant information on
the dashboard
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Ford adjusts the pedals so shorter people can reach
You can move the brake and throttle pedals closer in the new Focus so that shorter people don't have to stretch
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Visteon and 3M collaborate on flexible interiors
Switches that appear only when you want them and other flexible options are part of a project between the component company and the materials firm
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Toyota's seat fabric is suitable for allergy sufferers
An agent on the fibres envelops the allergens formed from dead dust mites and their droppings (well, we never said it was all glamour in these pages)
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Faurecia
aims to prove smart interiors needn't cost
Interior concepts set
out to show that smart technology and upmarket
finishes aren't just the preserve of luxury
vehicles
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One-step
moulding offers bright skins for cars
New one-stage plastics
moulding process likely to find favour on
upmarket vehicles, say Bayer and Faurecia
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VW develops
touch-screen module for city cars
The cockpit unit in
the Space Up four-door city car has a seven
inch monitor as its human-machine interface
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Jaguar invests
in rotary technology
The
rotary-action dial provides shift-by-wire
control of the automatic transmission - an
industry first
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BMW is given
the heads-up on lasers
Instrument cluster supplier
Nippon Seiki is developing next-generation
head-up displays (HUD)
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Ford
set to put speech recognition into Focus
and C-Max
The cars will get a new human-machine interface
from Blaupunkt that includes voice recognition
and text to speech technologies from Nuance
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Swedish
vehicle makers first with alco-locks
Car and truck makers
in Sweden take a lead in fitting devices to
stop drunk drivers from getting their vehicles
into motion
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Oshino
shines light on safety
Oshino Lamps is developing
proximity-sensing lights for use in side door
panels that will have wider applications for
safety
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Radical
cockpit design eliminates the crosscar beam
ThyssenKrupp and Johnson Controls have come
up with a mix of steel and plastics that is
20 per cent lighter and doesn't affect safety
performance, they say
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Bayer
and Dow aim to soften the blow for car occupants
Giant plastics groups have been working on
making interiors more passenger friendly
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Build-your-own
Lamborghini: at a price
Dealers take delivery of a virtual reality
system that enables customers to specify exactly
what they want inside and outside their ultraluxury
sportscar
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Car
seating company takes its ideas into aerospace
NuBax does innovative things with foam, and
its seats are already in Lotus cars. Now it's
hitting the aerospace market
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Polyolefin
foams offer fire resistance
Tests on a new material from Sekisui Alveo
show that it melts rather than generating
sparks when subjected to a flame
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ArvinMeritor
latches on to new technology
The door latches it's launching at IAA 2007
at Frankfurt combine software, electronics
and innovative mechanical design
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Johnson
Controls introduces processes for surfaces
Two new processes being unveiled at the IAA
in Frankfurt are intended to offer interiors
companies options in scratch-proof and matt
surfaces.
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Lear
stockholders reject private equity bid
The automotive seating group has turned down
a bid led by the "active" shareholder
Carl Icahn
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Filter
material can take out the nanoparticles
Mann & Hummel introduces a new nanofibre-based
material for filters intended to stop fine
particles entering the passenger compartment
of vehicles
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Dolby
sound puts good vibrations into Freelander
2
There are 14 speakers and the reproduction
quality of the 7.1 system is better than most
domestic systems
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Soya
bean foams make seat makers more comfortable
Criticism of the recyclability and high emissions
of present foams is to be deflected with a
new range coming out of natural materials
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Johnson
Controls' floor module takes on Volvo job
The Volvo S80 is the first
application for what JCI calls a new kind
of floorpan module
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Dow
unveils new foams for vehicle seating and
trim
The aim is to cut the use of
compounds and catalysts that could lead to
unpleasant side-effects within the vehicle
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Collins
& Aikman agrees sale of US flooring
The troubled group has agreed
to sell to IAC, but needs the permission of
its bankruptcy court first
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New
instrument cluster design by Johnson Controls
The concept is an instrument
cluster for the upper medium to luxury segment.
Apart from its classic, contemporary design,
the ease of use and potential for customisation
are the distinctive features.
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