TPT March 2017

67 / 96

G LOBA L MARKE T P L AC E
MARCH 2017 65
folds – which were then subjected to compression testing.
The thinner-walled object was unexpectedly found to be
able to withstand greater pressures, the likely result of the
incremental deformation of the structure. Thicker walls hold
higher deformation energy.
MIT believes that using heat-and-pressure treatment to coat
metal or polymer particles with graphene would leave the
lightweight, super-strong structure of the graphene intact.
“You can replace the material itself with anything,” Markus
Buehler, MIT’s head of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
told ArchDaily. “The geometry is the dominant factor.”
Automot i ve
Mr Trump extracted conciliatory gestures
from Ford and Toyota, but the German
carmakers may be made of sterner stuff
Days before Donald J Trump’s inauguration as the 45th
president of the United States, German carmakers responded
to Mr Trump’s threats of import duties on the autos they make
in Mexico for sale in the US by pointing to the extensive
expansion of their US production facilities in recent years.
BMW AG, which the president-elect singled out in the course
of an hour-long interview with the German newspaper Bild
and the Times of London, published on 15 January, noted that
its largest factory is in South Carolina and that cars made at
a planned smaller factory in Mexico will be exported globally.
Mr Trump had said that BMW will face a 35 per cent duty on
vehicles it exports to the US from Mexico.
As noted by Bloomberg reporters Elisabeth Behrmann and
Christoph Rauwald, Mr Trump’s comments were the first
aimed at a European carmaker after he issued similar
warnings to two domestic carmakers, prompting conciliatory
gestures by the targeted companies. Ford Motor Co cancelled
plans for a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and will instead
expand an existing site in Michigan. Toyota Motor Corp, which
is set to start producing cars at a new plant in Mexico starting
in 2019, has said it would take Mr Trump’s views into account
in its planning beyond that point.
Despite what has been called, in the New York Times, Mr
Trump’s “penchant for unpredictable disruption,” there were
signs that the German carmakers were taking his Mexico-
themed threats in stride. Peter Schwarzenbauer, who heads
BMW’s Mini and Rolls-Royce brands as well as BMW’s
car-sharing business, told reporters on the sidelines of a
conference in Munich that the company sees no reason to
change its plans in Mexico. He added, “Trump’s comments
aren’t really a surprise.”
P REDICTABLE UNPREDICTABILITY
“We take the comments seriously, but it remains to be seen if
and how the announcements will be implemented by the US
administration,” Matthias Wissmann, president of the German
auto industry association VDA, said in an emailed statement
to Bloomberg. The US Congress will, he said, probably show
“substantial resistance” against the duty proposals. (“German
Automakers Push Back Trump’s Warning Over Mexican
Plants,” 16 January)
That may be, and the proofs mount that Mr Trump’s
unpredictability is his most predictable characteristic. But the
German carmakers are likely hoping that the new president’s
fixation on Mexico-as-menace passes – and soon. While Mr
Trump referred only to BMW by name, they all have built or
are building capacity in Mexico to supply the US as well as
South American markets.
Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla is the biggest German auto
factory in Mexico. Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler plans to
Industriestraße 29/2
D-73340 Amstetten
Tel. +49(0)7331-30 58 38
Fax +49(0)7331-30 58 58
▪ Portable equipment for trimming and
hole cutting on pipes
▪ Cutting without turntable or roller
blocks
▪ For pipes from 320 up to 3.000 mm
▪ Suitable for autogen and plasma
cutting
from 14.000,- € (plus VAT)
CNC PIPE CUTTING MACHINES
Productvideo