Finally, cast-iron dies are made at a cost of $1.0 to $1.5 million per die.
Typically, before a new vehicle goes into production, it's first rendered in clay, then mapped by lasers into a super computer for 3-D modeling where refinements and corrections are made to the body. Isuzu, who several years earlier built a ceramics joint venture company, has been developing the process to produce ceramic dies for stamping and manufacturing. Isuzu's Ceramics ClassAutomobile manufacturers are continually looking for ways to shorten and make less expensive the development of new vehicles. It works so well, in fact, that even if three wheels are slipping at once, the system can still move the vehicle forward with grip at only one wheel. When the system's computer detects a slipping wheel, however, it'll apply brake force to it, which transfers power to wheels with more traction. In essence, under normal conditions, the system routes 50 percent of available torque to each axle. M-B tackled the problem of maintaining forward motion in the most challenging of situations by expanding the capabilities of its sophisticated electronic traction control system to all four wheels. No viscous couplings or locking differentials here. Then, Mercedes added a trick full-time 4WD system. First off, there's a sophisticated, fully independent suspension.
No newcomers to four-wheel-drive vehicles (remember the rugged, military-like Unimog and more recent Gelandewagen?), Mercedes nonetheless chose to practically reinvent the wheel rather than simply adapt tried-and-true technology to the M-Class.
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