DELPHI PACKARD Local plants help drive the future of auto innnovation

Packard is powering the latest developments in automotive technology.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
PONTIAC, Mich. -- Delphi Corp. engineers are dreaming of a different world for drivers.
In the future, a car would steer itself by sensing lane markers and perhaps take evasive action on its own to avoid a collision.
That's a long time off, but other parts of the dream may happen in a few years.
One system would detect a drowsy driver and turn up the radio or sound an alarm. Another would allow passengers to use a wireless connection to the Internet to download music, or play games while traveling at highway speeds.
Some of what they envision is already here.
Jaguar is using a Delphi system called adaptive cruise control, which automatically decelerates to keep pace with a slower vehicle in front. If the driver changes lanes, the car senses the other vehicle is gone and revs up to the set speed limit.
Delphi displayed its new and developing technology for media from around the world last week in Pontiac, Mich.
Behind all of it are the engineers at Delphi Packard Electric Systems, which is based in Warren.
Evolving role
When Delphi was the parts arm within General Motors, Packard's job was simply to make wiring harnesses to distribute power. Forty years ago, that would have meant about 100 feet of wiring within a car.
Today, the demand for more safety and convenience makes Packard's job much more complex. Some vehicles have more than a mile of wiring because of all the advanced features, said Dave Wright, Packard's director of advanced engineering.
"It's been good for Packard. Content growth has driven the business," he said.
Delphi, which is based in Troy, Mich., has separated from GM and is the world's largest auto parts maker.
As one of Delphi's divisions, Packard has the job of figuring out how to connect all of Delphi's new gizmos and gadgets, such as power windows that will shut off when they sense an obstruction and seats that will sense a child and not deploy an air bag as it would for an adult.
BMW's 700 Series, for example, has 70 computer processors connected by 11 wiring networks.
When a new technology is being developed by another part of Delphi, Packard engineers jump in to determine how to get the power where it needs to be as efficiently as possible.
New devices
Some of that is being done with new developments such as fiber optics and flat wire. LED lighting can be incorporated into flat wire, allowing for some special effects. BMW, for example, has installed flat wire in the frame under the door opening so its name is illuminated when a driver opens the door and steps in.
A couple of years ago, Packard helped a European carmaker reduce the number of wires going into a door from a 29-wire bundle a couple of inches thick to a six-wire bundle as big as a pinkie finger, Wright said. Designers love that because much more can be done with the door because it can be thinner. A pocket can be added, and switches can have a lower profile.
Packard is much more than wiring these days, however. To offer a more complete package, it acquired the switch business of Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. and created Delphi Mechatronic Systems.
Every button that's pushed in a car requires a switch to turn on or off an electrical circuit, and Packard previously was unable to offer much in the way of switches.
Connectors are another part of the changing nature of Packard. All the new electronic devices require plastic connectors, and that's good news here, where Packard employs 4,700 hourly and 1,900 salaried workers.
Plastics plant
Delphi is spending $60 million to build and equip a plastics plant in Vienna Township after recently spending $42 million to remodel its Cortland plant. Aging plastic molding machines on Dana Street in Warren are being replaced with machines making higher-quality parts.
"That's a very big signal from Delphi as to what its intentions are for the Mahoning Valley," Wright said.
Packard has turned local operations into component-making centers. Instead of handling final assembly of wiring harnesses, area plants now churn out plastic and metal parts and cable.
The plastic connectors are so important to Packard that it has created Delphi Connection Systems, which is based in Warren. It is leading all of Delphi's attempt to muscle into markets outside of automotive, such as cell phones, medical equipment and computers.
About 5 percent of Delphi's business is in new markets, and more than half of that amount comes from Packard. Ann Cornell, a Packard spokeswoman, said connectors easily transfer into these products, and Packard has become so efficient at making them that it has the capacity to add more business.
Last year, area Packard plants produced 2 billion plastic parts, 8 billion metal parts, 12 billion feet of cable and 20 million sensors.
Engineering ingenuity
The figures don't measure another Packard asset -- brain power.
Greg Shipman, Delphi senior account manager for commercial vehicle sales, said he marvels at the solutions that Packard engineers come up with to get power to the latest gadgets. He was showing off the cab of an 18-wheeler, including a computer mounted on the dash that can be operated without a keyboard, a heated steering wheel and thermo-electric cup holders that can keep drinks hot or cold.
Packard has five engineers assigned to Freightliner to work on new truck designs. Configuring compact systems that allow wires to control the new features and interact with onboard computer processors is impressive, Shipman said.
"I wouldn't want their job," he said.
shilling@vindy.com