ENTRIES ARE NOW OPEN

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: November 20, 2024

SAA's Innovations in Lightweighting Awards

An award competition that is free and easy to enter.

Winners will be announced during SAA's Materials Innovation Summit.

Lightweighting remains a key priority in the automotive industry as OEMs and suppliers grapple with the question of how to integrate new lightweight technologies while not adversely affecting the price of a new vehicle. 

Easy to do from the comforts of your home office:

Step 1: Complete the short entry form -- Please refer to the judging criteria below when completing your entry.

Step 2: Submit photos and other background info which may help your entry. Upload them at the bottom of the entry form.

Step 3: Sit back and wait to hear from the SAA if you are a finalist.

The two finalists will be asked to give a brief presentation on the innovation during the Mobility Innovation Summit.

About the Award 

The Innovations in Lightweighting award recognizes suppliers serving North American and global automotive OEMs with innovative products or technologies that provide either direct or indirect mass savings.

The products and/or technologies can represent a wide array of solutions including parts and or systems (e.g., control arms that incorporate multi-materials like steel, aluminum, and/or composites, composite solutions within the seat frame, advanced glass that is lighter/stronger, E-motor drives/axles that consolidate parts and provide an overall mass savings package).

Past Innovations in Lightweighting Award Winners

• 2023 -- Celanese for its High Damping PA66 Polymer that replaces metal with Zytel NVH Gen 2, a newly formulated polyamide (PA) 66. In addition to reducing weight, the it gives drivers and passengers a superior driving experience by controlling noise and vibration more effectively than metal.
• 2022-- BASF for its Lightweight Seat Structure which reduces weight by 20%, cost by 20%, and the number of components from more than 60 steel components to just four molded plastic parts.
• 2021 -- No award given (COVID)
• 2020 -- BASF for its Third Row Plastic Freestanding Seat Frame which was 30% lighter compared to the previous steel version.
• 2019 -- Novelis for its Electric Vehicle Battery Enclosure; the first aluminum sheet battery enclosure solution to address customers’ needs in the rapidly growing electric vehicle and battery markets.
• 2018 -- American Axle & Manufacturing for its QUANTUM™ Driveline technology, which is scalable across multiple applications and offers significant mass reduction (up to 35 percent) without sacrificing performance or power.

About the Judges

Judges for the 2024 Lightweighting Innovation Awards include:

• Abe Vadhavkar, Former Director of Manufacturing, Engineering & Technology, Center for Automotive Research (CAR)
• Dave Andrea, Partner, Plante Moran
• Lindsay Brooke, Retired (formerly Editor-in-Chief of Automotive Engineering and Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazines, SAE International)

The Materials Innovation Summit is sponsored by:

The Materials Innovation Summit is held in partnership with: