Ford Motor Company

Ford invested $55 million to retool and reopen the plant, which had been idled in 2007. Approximately 250 employees are returning to the plant to build the new engines.

EcoBoost technology combines turbocharging and direct gasoline injection to deliver up to 20 percent improved fuel economy, 15 percent fewer CO2 emissions and superior driving performance compared with larger displacement engines. The “downsize and boost” strategy provides consumers better fuel economy without sacrificing the power they want for driving performance.

“This launch of the first EcoBoost engine is a significant milestone in Ford’s overall commitment to deliver affordable fuel efficiency for millions,” said Barb Samardzich, vice president, Global Powertrain Engineering. “We’ve spent the past two years developing EcoBoost technology and now our customers will finally have the opportunity to experience what this engine delivers, the power of a V-8 with the fuel economy of a V-6.”

About EcoBoost

The 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine, the first V-6 direct-injection twin-turbocharged engine produced in North America, will make its debut in the 2010 Lincoln MKS, Lincoln MKT, Ford Taurus SHO and Ford Flex this summer. A V-6 EcoBoost engine will be available for the F-150 in 2010.

Ford will deliver EcoBoost across the full range of its product portfolio, from small cars to large trucks and by 2013, will offer EcoBoost engines, V-6s and I-4s, on 90 percent of its North American nameplates. Within three years, Ford expects to deliver 750,000 EcoBoost-equipped vehicles per year in North America and 1.3 million vehicles globally.

The 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine delivers 355 horsepower and a responsive 350 ft.-lb. of torque across a broad RPM range.

New Life for Historic Plant

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 opened in 1951 as Ford’s first engine plant in Ohio. Since then it has produced more than 35 million engines, including 24.3 million engines in the famous 302 and 5.0-liter V-8 family. In 2004, Ford invested $350 million into the plant for redesign and installation of an all-new assembly line as well as block, crankshaft and cylinder head machining lines.

Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 has been outfitted with a flexible powertrain manufacturing system that can be easily reprogrammed to perform new tasks with minimal disruption to production.

“The ability to reprogram on the fly is a key feature of this new manufacturing system,” said Charles Binger, Cleveland site manager. “We don’t have to shut down an entire plant in order to make major changes to the line, helping to speed up modifications and keep downtime to a minimum.”

Plant upgrades also included a special turbocharger installation and test line. After the turbos are added, each EcoBoost engine is turned on speeds between 60-600 RPM using an electric motor to simulate running conditions. Unique to the Cleveland site, this “cold test” checks for proper buildup of pressure on the turbo output side before the engine ever leaves the factory.

To ensure quality is built into the engine from the outset, Ford developed a new, internal database for its operations. Each engine will be built with a sophisticated, embedded engine “birth history” that allows plant engineers to track every stage of production.

The engine history, maintained in a microchip database, includes hundreds of metrics and allows engineers to trace the precise path taken by any part so any quality control issue can be traced back to its source.

Extensive Employee Training

To prepare for production of the EcoBoost engine, Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 work force participated in intensive quality training. Along with learning basic manufacturing operations, employees also learned to manage their own equipment and work area through “manufacturing work teams” at the facility.

“Training workers to do their jobs is one thing,” said Kevin Heck, Cleveland Engine No. 1 manufacturing manager. “But we’ve gone beyond that by giving team members significant responsibility for their output. It’s up to the hourly team members to produce a high-quality engine, and we’ve empowered them to make that happen.”

“We’re proud of the efforts we’ve made to improve quality,” said Mike Gammella, president, UAW Local 1250. “We have an outstanding work force at the Cleveland site, working together to ensure we’re not just competitive, but the best in the industry.”

Production Innovations through Supplier Collaboration

The twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine’s enhanced fuel-charging system can deliver as much as 2,150 PSI of fuel pressure – more than 35 times the pressure seen in a conventional port-fuel-injected V-6. Ford worked in tandem with Bosch, the fuel system supplier, to ensure that manufacturing and assembly was prepared for the demands of the advanced design.

“The EcoBoost line has a fully automated fuel-charging assembly and rundown station,” said Joseph Basmaji, Ford direct injection fuel system technical specialist. “It’s a new technology in manufacturing that’s only been made possible by close collaboration between Ford and our suppliers.”

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The new Mustang uses high strength steel in its body structure and uses ultra high strength steel in the door intrusion beams for additional side impact protection.

The Mustang’s considerable body stiffness contributes to the coupe and convertible’s driving performance and has a parallel benefit in accident protection. While the coupe’s body structure is approximately 31 percent stiffer than the previous Mustang platform, the convertible’s is more than twice as stiff – creating a structure that helps protect the cabin from deformation and intrusion during an impact.

The front structure’s crush zones are computer-designed to absorb energy in a controlled manner and help dissipate it before it can reach the passenger compartment. Ford engineers have run thousands of design iterations of the Mustang’s front rails to arrive at an octagonal shape that helps spread crash forces evenly to help protect occupants.

AdvanceTrac(TM) Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is now standard and complements Mustang’s all-speed traction control and anti-lock braking system (ABS). Additional standard safety equipment includes: anti-lock brakes (ABS), Beltminder(R) and the Personal Safety System(TM) – a system that includes dual-stage driver and front passenger air bags, safety belt pretensioners and State-of-the-art technology adds to the convenience and safety of the 2010 Mustang, from the availability of the latest version of Ford SYNC(R), with new features 911 Assist(TM) and Vehicle Health Report, to standard AdvanceTrac(R) Electronic Stability Control, which complements the all-speed traction control and anti-lock braking system.

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Ford designers and researchers are taking a total green approach to vehicle development and design, stepping beyond just fuel efficiency and what’s under the hood and incorporating more sustainable materials and processes inside the vehicle, too.

Ford’s award-winning soy-based foam seat cushions and backs, for example, will be on more than 1 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles by the end of this year, leading to a total reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of more than 5 million pounds. Most recently, Ford announced that the all-new 2010 Ford Taurus SHO, Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ will feature sustainable interior materials such as seat fabrics made with varying degrees of post-industrial yarns, suede-like material created from plastic pop bottles, chromium-free leather and engineered ebony wood, all of which reduce waste, energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

To ensure these greener material measures resonate with customers, Ford designers are gaining a deeper understanding of the different levels of green consumerism. Statistics show that one in four adults in the U.S. are living more sustainable lifestyles; interested in companies that are more socially responsible and buying products that are healthier for people and the planet.

Designers also are examining what’s the most expressive way to use these materials in vehicle interiors and how do they best represent the vehicle brand. Customers, for example, expect suede to look and feel like suede even if it’s made from plastic bottles. Interior wood accents, a common luxury-car cue, must exhibit rich colors and textures, whether it’s derived from a natural veneer or a more eco-friendly reconstituted wood veneer.

Ford researchers are challenged with developing alternative interior materials that perform without compromise to functionality or durability, can be manufactured in a more eco-friendly manner, decrease our dependence on foreign oil and are cost effective. No interior application is off limits on the research front, with plastics, rubber, foam, film and fabric under the microscope. No material is discarded as a possible substitute, either, from recycled items such as old blue jeans and plastic pop bottles to bio-based sources such as hemp, wheat straw, corn and soybeans.

The goal is to provide the company with as many sustainable material choices as possible for interior components front to back, from seat cushions and fabrics to underbody and impact shields, headliners, trunk liners and more.

In Vehicles Today

Ford’s imaginative use of sustainable materials for vehicle interiors in North America includes:

• Award-winning soy-based polyurethane foams on the seat cushions and seat backs, now in production on the Ford Mustang, Expedition, F-150, Focus, Escape, Escape Hybrid, Mercury Mariner and Lincoln Navigator and Lincoln MKS. Within a year after its 2007 introduction on the Mustang, Ford was using soy foam seats on more than 1 million vehicles, which results in a reduction of petroleum oil usage by 1 million pounds annually. This year, Ford is expanding its soy-foam portfolio to include the industry’s first application of a soy-foam headliner on the 2010 Escape and Mariner.
• 100 percent post-industrial recycled yarns in seat fabrics. The 2008 Ford Escape was the first vehicle in the U.S. to use seating surfaces made from 100 percent post-industrial recycled fabric. The 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids feature 85 percent post-industrial yarns and 15 percent solution died yarns. The use of 100 percent post-industrial yarns represents a 64 percent reduction in energy consumption and a 60 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.
• 100 percent post-consumer recycled yarns in seat fabrics. The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKZ utilize fabrics made from pop bottles to further reduce consumer waste and at the same time maintain the luxurious hand and appearance required for luxury vehicles. Each meter of this micro denier suede is made from 20 recycled plastic pop bottles.
• Underbody systems, such as aerodynamic shields, splash shields, and radiator air deflector shields, made from post-consumer recycled resins such as detergent bottles, tires and battery casings. In 2008, nearly a dozen Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products featured these applications, diverting between 25 and 30 million pounds of plastic from landfills. For the 2009 model year, all North American products will use the recycled resin.
• Engineered ebony wood. Recycled and reassembled grain by grain, this wood is stained with a water-based stain to give it the warm, rich appearance luxury vehicle owners expect without destroying additional trees. The wood is featured on Lincoln products, including the Navigator, MKX and MKS. For 2010, the Lincoln MKZ will also offer interior leathers tanned with a more earth-friendly, chromium-free process.

On the Horizon

Ford’s holistic and sky’s-the-limit approach to using more sustainable materials means that researchers are hard at work developing new implementations of other renewable materials to help reduce resource burdens, waste and emissions as well as help reduce the weight of vehicles and improve their fuel economy. Applications on the horizon include:

• Corn-based, compostable and natural-fiber filled plastics. Under development are, for example, natural-fiber composites as a potential substitute for the glass fibers traditionally used in plastic automotive components to make them stronger.
• Polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable plastic derived completely from the sugars in corn, sugarbeets, sugarcane, switch grass and other plants. Plastic parts made from PLA can biodegrade after their life cycle in 90 to 120 days versus up to 1,000 years in a landfill for a traditional petroleum-based plastic.
• The replacement of petroleum-based fillers with soy protein fillers in rubber for items such as door seals, floor mats, gaskets and splash shields.
• Experimentation with nanotechnology, including nano-filler materials in metal and plastic composites to reduce weight while increasing strength.

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