It's the biggest order in the company's history: In the coming years, ZF Friedrichshafen will supply eight-speed automatic transmissions to BMW. The contract has a volume in the tens of billions. The supplier also presented its business figures recently.

Volkswagen is converting its plant in Zwickau/Mosel: It is to be the Group’s first plant to exclusively manufacture electric vehicles in large numbers - a strong signal for e-mobility. In an interview, Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management for E-Mobility at Volkswagen and Managing Director of Volkswagen Saxony, talks about the underlying motives.

Zinc die casting has consistently developed over the past decades and proven its potential. For thin-walled, lightweight, small and filigree objects as well as for large parts, the demands on speed, efficiency, stability, haptics and appearance are increasing - and the material and energy consumption is constantly decreasing.

The VDMA has lowered its production forecast from 2 % to 1 %. The uncertainty on the world markets is making itself felt, says the association. This is mainly influenced by digitalization. Have buzzwords such as machine learning and industrial intelligence now arrived in reality?

The casting industry is in a transitional period adjusting to new trends and products. Manufacturers require flexibility in their equipment to account for shorter program life cycles while still being able to be competitive. In many instances this requires assets to be spread across multiple programs.

In plaster casting 2.0, Formkon has combined the conventional casting process with 3D printing and can deliver aluminum and magnesium prototypes in one to two weeks.

Out of the innovation and technological development stimulated by motorsport competitions comes Flexira, a new high performance aluminum caliper concept, that overcomes the limit of the reduced space inside the wheel typical of compact cars.

The prerequisites for interoperability in an Industry 4.0 environment are globally applicable norms and standards. Therefore, the reference architecture model for Industry 4.0 has been developed to describe the system environment. This paper provides a first structured overview of developments in the field of Industry 4.0 standardization.

As a performance brand, Mercedes-AMG pursues an integrated lightweight strategy. Uwe Renz, Head of Body Development, presented this strategy at this year's Lightweight Construction Summit - and called for a paradigm shift in development.

According to an analysis published by management consultant firm Ernst & Young, the German automotive industry barely grew last year. However: While manufacturers' sales dropped, suppliers registered an increase in turnover.