Feature

Driving sustainability: Specialist bearings slash vehicle emissions

According to McKinsey & Company’s Lightweight, heavy impact report, the use of lighter materials in the latest aircraft and automobile designs will be essential in reducing the CO2 emissions that these vehicles produce. But lightweighting presents design and cost challenges, as well as sustainability advantages, for manufacturers.

30/06/2023 10:59:09

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To overcome these challenges, Chris Johnson, Managing Director at SMB Bearings, explains why design engineers should give serious consideration to thin section and stainless steel bearings.

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lightweight designs, relating specifically to the use of lighter materials, have long been a consideration for design engineers. This has particularly applied to aerospace, where, as written in
DHM and Posturography, lightweight designs and materials are preferred for aircraft interiors, not only “to reduce weight without compromising passenger comfort, or perhaps even while increasing comfort”, but
also to save fuel costs.

The concept of lightweighting isn’t new. But the concept’s wider ramifications for fuel, cost and efficiency savings are pushing it higher up engineers’
priority lists – especially as governments sharply increase their sustainability efforts, including in the use of more advanced manufacturing concepts for reducing CO2 emissions.

Read the full article in DPA's July issue

Written By Sophia Bell

Sophia Bell is the Group Editor of DPA, Connectivity, and PBSI. She joined the team in 2020 as Assistant Editor after achieving a First-Class Honours BA in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her current role, she leads the editorial strategy, driving digital growth and ensuring each title continues to deliver trusted, relevant insight for engineering and manufacturing professionals.