Material Sciences Corporation (MSC) has been providing solutions to the automotive industry for more than forty years. MSC technologies include advanced corrosion resistance coatings for steel fuel tanks, filler tubes, as well as vehicle body structures of both steel and aluminum.
MSC pioneered the development of weldable and formable Quiet Steel®, an engineered laminate for acoustical performance in stamped parts. Quiet Steel milestones include the first stamped body panel for a vehicle, the first computer disk drive application, the first engine stamping and the first brake shim.
Our current portfolio of solutions is cutting edge with the introduction of our Quiet Aluminum® Acoustic laminate as well as MSC Smart Steel® which can offer a 35% weight save over monolithic steel while matching stiffness.
MSC engineers work with customers to identify and validate value propositions that offer both cost and mass savings. MSC’s Research Center located in Canton, Michigan offers state-of-the-art noise and vibration testing and modeling capabilities as well as laboratories to carry out full product development and validation testing.
Body Structures
Brackets & Covers
Brakes
Fuel Systems
Gaskets
Powertrain
Body Structure
Quiet Body Structures are becoming as important as Styling and Performance.
Quiet is no longer just for luxury-conscious buyers. MSC’s Quiet Steel® Acoustic Laminates provide the automotive industry with several specific alternatives to the costly add-on damping treatments. This is important because the industry has applied these mass intensive and costly treatments to several areas of the vehicle such as: Powertrain, and Body Structures, among others, adding weight, cost, manufacturing and assembly issues as well as potential paint contamination.
Extensive acoustical testing clearly demonstrates that using Quiet Steel in a dash panel can substantially reduce noise levels in the passenger compartment and eliminate the need for add-on treatments.
MSC’s Quiet Steel offers lower system costs and lighter weight alternatives while improving manufacturing costs. These materials can be formed, welded and are recyclable. Quiet Steel has proven to be a quality and value added alternative in other Body-in-White applications including; dash panels, wheelhouses, upper cowls, floor panels, and spare tire tubs. Expect “Exceptional noise reduction while simultaneously reducing vehicle weight and cost.” Designing Quiet Steel into the body structure can provide global damping coverage while eliminating costly patches.
Brackets and Covers
MSC’s Laminates find new Applications while helping the environment.
MSC is the largest Provider of NVH Laminates in the World. Our team is in constant pursuit of new applications for our innovative products where we can ultimately help the environment by reducing noise and vibration.
Enclosures for common motors, gears and other equipment to protect working parts are good candidates for the use of MSC’s Quiet Steel®. In addition, the brackets that are supporting these components can be manufactured with the Quiet Steel advantage.
OEM’s and Tier 1 suppliers that stamp subsystems’ components such as power systems, electromechanical systems, and latching mechanisms can benefit from MSC’s Quiet Steel by isolating noise and vibration, reducing cost and streamlining processes. Quiet Steel has proven effective in reducing noise and vibration in the following components.
Other applications of Quiet Steel are:
- Power Seat Tracks
- Window lift mechanisms
- Power Door Systems
- Fan and Blower Housings
Brakes
Within the expansive MSC portfolio of sound damping NVH products includes laminates and coated metal supplied to the global automotive brake shim market. These materials have proven to solve brake noise issues over a broad spectrum of temperature and frequency ranges. MSC’s capabilities include single layer products, coated laminated as well as rubber coated and textured steel.
Fuel Systems
MSC’s Fuel System Solutions solve the complex needs of a demanding market
When it comes to Fuel Tanks, material suppliers have a unique challenge. The exterior of automotive fuel tanks must handle the harsh elements, such as road salt, slush, snow, ice, rainwater, stones and assorted road debris for the life of the vehicle. In contrast, the inside of the tank also presents a challenge in that the material must resist the corrosive chemical attack of various fuel additives while maintaining a benign relationship with everything from pure gasoline to various and constantly-changing formulations of bio-fuels. Coupled with the fact that each manufacturer, has their own specifications and performance standards, these materials must be highly formable into complex shapes, weldable and readily available in high volumes at competitive prices.
MSC is uniquely equipped to handle these challenges around the world. MSC has the only electrogalvanizing line in the US that produces the ultra-durable Zi-Ni galvanized steel coating. This line is also capable of providing the more common electrogalvanized coatings when required.
To meet the vast array of manufacturers specifications, we then can apply organic coatings over the Zi-Ni plating specifically developed for fuel systems that comply with:
- Ford Motor Company Spec – WSL-M1A325-B1- Gas and Bio Diesel
- General Motors Spec – GM6295M – Gas and Bio Diesel
- Fiat Chrysler Spec – MS-4857 – Zi-Ni and PS9163 – Filler Tubes
MSC offers coatings that include chrome-free systems for gasoline, flex fuels and bio-diesel applied over MSC’s advanced Zi-Ni galvanized steel, chrome free systems applied over HDG aluminized steel and aluminum-rich epoxy. MSC adds: edge trim, re-inspection, and export packaging capabilities to create a comprehensive single-source fuel system materials.
Gaskets
The automotive and recreational motor sealing market also falls within MSC’s product offering, including but not limiting end uses that apply to the valve body gasket for transmissions, intake manifolds and head gaskets for engines. MSC roll coats several types of adhesives which are engineered specifically with the OEM’s and its aftermarket Customers to provide sealing where needed for these applications.
Powertrain
MSC’s is the Worlds largest supplier of Powertrain Laminates
Powertrains present NVH material suppliers with unique challenges in Noise, Vibration and Weight Reduction requirements. As the World’s largest Powertrain Laminate producer, Quiet Steel® and Quiet Aluminum® provide today’s auto manufacturers the right solution to keep noise and vibration out of the passenger compartment. MSC materials damp vibration at the source.
MSC works with our clients to apply these innovative materials in powertrains as well for engine valve and front covers, baffles, windage trays, brackets, pulleys, oil pans, transmission pans and covers. Each of these applications requires materials that are formable and weldable to reduce cost, weight and improve manufacturing and assembly cost.
Quiet Steel is a unique damping material that uses an engineered viscoelastic layer laminate between two sheets of steel to meet applications-specific damping, temperature, stiffness and operating environmental needs.
With MSC’s Quiet Steel and Quiet Aluminum material, cost patches are eliminated.
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