Mixed-Media Art: A Look at the 2016 Cadillac CT6 Sedan’s Structure

Steel saves weight. When Cadillac turned its body-structure computers loose and let them optimize each part for its mission, the CT6’s unibody ended up 62 percent aluminum, 38 percent steel, and 220 pounds lighter than the smaller CTS. Here’s how GM pulls off the sedan’s mixed-material body.

The front-door hinge pillars are two of 13 high-pressure aluminum die castings. Each pillar replaces 35 steel stampings, greatly simplifying assembly and dramatically reducing mass while improving strength and dimensional accuracy. The total part count is down 20 percent. Between these pillars is a steel firewall because a 1-mm-thick aluminum panel would have transmitted more noise, requiring 40-50 mm of acoustic damping material, adding considerable cost and weight. Steel is also used on the floor, the rear bulkhead, and the B-pillars.

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Another GM breakthrough is its patented spot-welding technique for joining aluminum panels. A typical blunt, 8-mm spot-welding tip tends to burn through sheet aluminum, so GM devised a new tip with concentric rings that better distributes the current, fusing the panels without burning through them. Spot welds weigh less, they’re faster and easier to execute than the more common rivets, and they permit flanges to shrink by 4 mm, enlarging door openings by that amount all around. The CT6 employs 3,073 such spot welds along with laser and arc welding. Where greater strength is required, the CT6 uses 879 feet of structural adhesives, and self-piercing rivets or flow-drilled screws join steel to aluminum.

2016 Cadillac CT6 front view in motion 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 side profile 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear three quarter 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear three quarter in motion 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter in motion 05 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter in motion 04 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter in motion 03 2016 Cadillac CT6 front end 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter in motion 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter in motion 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 front three quarter 2016 Cadillac CT6 badge 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 badge 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 badge 03 2016 Cadillac CT6 headlamp 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 grille 2016 Cadillac CT6 headlamp 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear end 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear three quarter in motion 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear three quarter in motion 03 2016 Cadillac CT6 side profile 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 top view 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 cabin 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 cabin 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 cabin 03 2016 Cadillac CT6 center console 2016 Cadillac CT6 instrument cluster 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 instrument cluster 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 seat detail 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear seat 03 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear seat 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 rear entertainment 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 tail lamp 01 2016 Cadillac CT6 headlamp detail 2016 Cadillac CT6 tail lamp 02 2016 Cadillac CT6 tail lamp 03

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