Yanfeng honours leading suppliers

On 2 March 2016, at the Classic Remise in Düsseldorf, Yanfeng Automotive Interiors (YFAI) presented its annual European Supplier Awards to 15 of its leading suppliers, thereby honouring the partners’ outstanding achievements. As James Bos, vice-president for global procurement at YFAI, explained, “Our suppliers play an important role in our success. We are pleased to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of our suppliers with this award.”

Yanfeng Automotive Interiors is the world’s leading supplier of instrument panels and cockpit systems, door panels, floor consoles and overhead consoles. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company has around 100 manufacturing and technical centres in 17 countries and employs over 28,000 people globally. Established in 2015, Yanfeng Automotive Interiors is a joint venture between Yanfeng Automotive Trim Systems Co., Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Huayu Automotive Systems Co., Ltd. (HASCO), the component group of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited (SAIC Motor), and Johnson Controls – a global multi-industrial company.

The YFAI European Supplier Awards are a prestigious recognition by YFAI of its leading supply partners. When choosing the winners, YFAI considered a number of key factors, including quality, costs, logistics, development, technology and service. The winning suppliers, depending on the overall score achieved, received a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze Supplier Performance Award. Out of the 15 winners, eight companies providing plastics, resins, chemicals, foams, indirect packaging, and trim and metal components secured an award. Amongst them, IZO-BLOK SA from Poland received the Platinum Performance Award, recognising its expertise in the processing of foamed plastics and particularly its supplies of foamed polypropylene to YFAI. Furthermore, this dynamic Polish company also received the Leadership Award in the Customer Satisfaction category, reflecting its proactive support for project start-ups and the optimal structure of its supply chain.

The Silver Performance Award was presented to SABIC Innovative Plastics GmbH, a manufacturer of chemical products, plastics and metals, while the Bronze Award went to BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Eurofoam Deutchland GmbH, A. Raymond GmbH & Co. KG, TR Fastenings Ltd., Coatex NV and J.H. Ziegler GmbH.

Together with IZO-BLOK SA, nine further suppliers received the Leadership Award, for strengths such as sustainability, innovation, quality, customer satisfaction, global growth and continuous improvement in performance. MacAuto Industrial Co. Ltd. from Taiwan and A. Raymond GmbH & Co. KG from Germany were presented with the Quality award. In the continuous improvement in performance award, the winners were Xinpoint Corporation from China, TRICOR Packaging & Logistics AG and Polyvlies - Franz Beyer GmbH (the latter both from Germany). In the Customer Satisfaction category (where IZO-BLOK SA was awarded), recognitions went to Everwill Industries Ltd from China, ITW Automotive Release & Trim from Germany and Coatex NV from Belgium, who each also received a Bronze Supplier Performance Award. Last but not least, the supplier IEE SA from Luxembourg, which specialises in innovative solutions in sensor systems, was recognised with the Leadership Award in the Innovation category. Together with the YFAI innovations team, the supplier developed a heated armrest for door panels, which provides a more comfortable driving experience particularly in cold weather.

Innovative heated armrest solution

Comfort, personalisation, energy efficiency and production flexibility drove the development of this new generation of heated armrests. Thinner and lighter than comparable products currently on the market, the heated armrest provides benefits in terms of energy efficiency. It uses a panel heating technology system, which is not only extremely comfortable but is also highly energy efficient. The heat produced by the panel reaches passengers more directly and quickly than the heat emitted by conventional vehicle HVAC systems. As a result, the driver can lower the heat coming from the HVAC system when using the heated armrest.

The new heated armrest is now ready for series production and the functional panel can easily be integrated into the existing door panel production process. This solution is cost-effective, as it uses the same equipment, foam carrier and materials as conventional, unheated armrests. Therefore, heated armrests can be made on the same production line as conventional armrests in a single just-in-sequence process.

Further comfort improvements

In addition to the heated armrest, YFAI has recently introduced other innovations, such as the slim overhead console which improves comfort and spaciousness. The console is only 15mm thick and features an innovative sunroof control, offering virtually all functions of a traditional overhead console without interfering with the driver’s headroom. With this new overhead console, YFAI reduced the weight and space required by 55–80 per cent in comparison to conventional components. As a result, automakers can lower the rooflines while creating a feeling of greater spaciousness in the vehicle interior. The console offers most of the features and functions of traditional overhead consoles, including lighting for switches as well as the integration of lights, microphones and garage door openers. Additionally, the driver can activate the emergency response button on the overhead console. With the press of a button, the basic lighting on the console changes to red and a clearly audible warning signal is sounded.

Illuminated door panels are another innovation, presented at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2015. The prototypes of decorative fabric and leather door panels showcased the innovative integration of light guides for ambient lighting into large-scale

surfaces. The new light guides for ambient lighting are not only decorative, but also help to display vehicle status messages. The new technology is made possible by directly incorporating light guides into a lightweight support fabric combined with LEDs. This enables large-scale illumination with maximum design freedom. The thin material fitted with light guides forms a surface that is then used as a backlighting solution. Compared to the alternative flat lighting options, the solution offers a weight reduction of up to 25 per cent with this process. LEDs are an effective light technology, guaranteeing long service life and high colour intensity. The illuminated door panel surfaces fulfil a functional purpose as well. The full-scale ambient lighting structures and visualises vehicle status messages, such as red for the transition from self-controlled to autonomous driving mode and blue for relaxed autonomous driving. n