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The sheet metal joining through spot welding is the most widely used process for automotive body building, where an average vehicle has around 5,000 spot welding points in its structure. In this sense, the spot welding project is critical to the final product performance and it must be done in a way that can assure both quality and durability of the vehicle, already taking into consideration the fact that the spot weld mechanical properties related to fatigue and rupture resistance are much lower when compared to other available welding techniques like MIG welding for example. These properties have a direct impact in the fatigue durability and crashworthiness properties of the vehicle, as a significant part of the structural resistance goes through these spot welds. With this scenario, the correct application of FEA techniques is very important to assure that the projected joints and spot weld disposition meet the product targets in terms of safety and durability.

One of the biggest challenges in the development of a new engine and/or control system basic calibration is the construction of initial open loop maps when component characteristic curves are not available yet. It is very common in this development phase to have cylinder air charge or fuel injector terms, which effect final commanded fuel injector pulse width (i.e., injector opening time), being assigned (compensated) to wrong calibration maps as a result of the lack of reliable component characteristic curves at the beginning of calibration development. This paper presents a practical and simplified procedure for raising the basic engine maps for cylinder air mass filling, volumetric efficiency, fuel injector static flow and offset in either an engine bench or chassis dyno. This method has proven to be accurate enough to allow continuing with the basic calibration development. Comparisons to suppliers final characteristics curves show a deviation lower than 3%.

1 During the development of a new clutch disc damping system and after three months of hard work the engineering team got stuck with unsatisfactory system performance (rattle noise), despite the help of a computer simulation software. The only alternative seemed to be using a more expensive damping concept but, besides the fact that there wasn't much development time left, that option would increase part cost by unacceptable US$ 200, plus development cost. The team then decided to try Taguchi's Robust Engineering optimization approach for the first time. In just two weeks the authors got a 4.6 dB gain on the signal-to-noise ratio. That allowed us to keep the initially proposed system, thus avoiding the cost increase. Besides, the authors were able to keep the development schedule on track.

The force x velocity graph is the most used tool for suspension damper analysis. This approach hides important information regarding the bleeds / spring / orifice combination. This paper describes the energy analysis, comparing two different damper suppliers, with comfort measurements using B&K Human Response Vibration Meter and MTS single channel Four Post system.

This work aims to summarize in a single form all legal requirements that dictates the minimum safety compliance required by government edicts to any wheel manufacture to have their products available for passenger or light truck vehicle in any country around the world in the year of 2016. It is not intention of this paper compare or discuss the different requirement among the countries but indicate to the manufactures of wheels what legal edicts they need to meet in case they are willing to go overseas to explore the wheel market of other country. Before start designing wheels for passenger or light truck application, any manufacture should be sure about what the government of the new market demands for wheels when installed on vehicle axis or just available as temporary spare. Another objective of this paper is to be a short reference for new automakers to know what to demand from their suppliers of wheels before starting business with them or shipping vehicles to any new market.

The challenge of this project is to make a development of a low cost material and has a high resolution digital film to be applied through a process of injection molding plastic material the surface has an alternative finish in decorative pieces. In the current process is too large is not feasible because of the cost is the cost of being a material of high performance and is on top of plastics engineering. Now the consumer has seen the cars (Popular) with very plastic material inside, leaving the car or with a dark look much lower. This project has to change the main idea that consumer sentiment Popular car, in your pocket without adding the automaker will have a freedom in design for rapid change in appearance or individual customization (geometric patterns, images, etc …) to enhance the accuracy of the finished piece. Expected outcomes (products specific to the program): Research and defines the IMD, the printing process, forming, injection and raw materials.

The automotive industry demands for quality and technological innovations that enhance the performance of their products. Visual quality and corrosion resistance are also very important, even for fasteners exposed to the weathering throughout its life cycle that shall meet the performance requirements specified by the automotive industry. This paper shows how the search for new technologies leads to innovations in the already established surface treatment with a new generation of sealers for the automotive industry. This brand new technology of organic/polymeric sealer applies in water basis a single and uniform layer with low molecular weight (1000 to 10000 Dalton) in order to enhance specific properties such as high corrosion resistance, low coefficient of friction attributing characteristics of self-lubricating surface and increase in the wear resistance of the coating.

For many years the knowledge in an organization has been very well treated and protected, by a discipline widely known as Knowledge Management (KM). Despite it can be consider one of the main pillars of any automotive research and development (R&D) department, several companies do not pay attention to it as they should. Who does manage and apply it appropriately certainly has been granted with innumerous business opportunities, maximizing the usage of its resources, reducing development and validation time consumption and minimizing the inherent risks of new projects. This paper covers pure KM concepts and presents several tools and practices that have been proven very good and effective for knowledge identification, storage and usage by R&D departments.

The fuel indicator float inside the fuel tank, also called just float or erroneously, fuel indicator, is in reality a fuel level sender. It is apparently a really simple part, but it consists of a small system constituted of the float itself; the float arm articulated to an axle carrying a moving contact over a resistor; and the resistor inside a housing/flange. Its function is to convert the fuel level measurements inside the tank in suitable information to the instruments in the vehicle instrument panel. Since a few years ago, it has suffered successive changes toward the objective of improving quality, durability, reliability and performance, or even motivated by innovations in the installation environment and correlated systems, such as, emission controls, affecting the tank internal space, and highly corrosive type fuels.

Concurrent engineering plays an important role in the accomplishment of “Fast to Market” objective. Sharing of information among all disciplines involved in the product development process is a basic requirement to support the concurrent engineering effort. However, the accomplishment of final objectives, is strongly dependent on teamwork effort, accuracy, and velocity of shared flow of information. Teamwork is the sound interaction among all disciplines, aimed to the same objectives, and requires continuous commitment and close attention by all members in the organization. Accuracy and velocity are the key elements to expedite the product development process from design conception to production, and requires an effective tool to accomplish these objectives. This tool is the CAD/CAE/CAM Technology, which is responsible for the process automation. Teamwork is responsible for full process integration, which is the backbone of an effective concurrent engineering activity.

In the early 1990s, Brazilian automotive industries have testified a new scenario with a competitiveness increased due to the establishment of foreign companies, which forced them to follow new strategies to maintain its competitiveness in the market. Innovation and quality become priority, as well as new technologies and product cost optimization. More specifically, the focus on current automotive products cost reduction is nowadays one of the most important strategies to provide significant increase in profits and market share of companies. The purpose of this paper is to introduce case studies and the technical and economical benefits of product optimization process applied in current automotive components, where the requirements of quality maintenance, performance and cost reductions are emphasized.

This paper came from the latent needs of the Brazilian Market for products more robust and at the same time cheaper. With these needs in mind the product development team of General Motors do Brasil have developed together with Altair Engineering do Brasil a design methodology based on the topologic optimization technology. The objective of this paper was defined in a meeting of the technical teams of the two companies: Develop the application of the topologic optimization technology on design of structural components using actual GMB models. This methodology is described on this paper with some practical examples where it was applied. One the important news here presented it was considering the casting constrains that leave to an optimal design that can be produced. The results here presented were obtained using optimization and compared with the traditional approach here defined as try-error.

This paper explains the evolution of Electric and Hybrid propulsion system from its early beginning and the drawbacks faced along the way, explaining why the Internal Combustion Engine turned out to be dominant and the reasons why the fossil fuel model is now in question. It explains the recent developments that allowed its production and the progressive electrification steps leading from conventional Internal Combustion Technology towards the top electrification technologies. It demonstrates how some old-fashioned technologies are reinvented in order to boost performance and efficiency on Hybrid Propulsion systems. The paper explains the evolution on the Hybrid Propulsion Systems architecture in the last 20 years and how it brought a considerable improvement on efficiency and performance leading to the highly advanced hybrid vehicles now in production. It also points out to future new developments on the sector.

This paper presents the results of a study about the influence of the suspension manufacturing and assembly induced dimensional variation on the vehicle dynamic behavior for a compound crank rear suspension. A selection of representative vehicle dynamics metrics has been considered for this assessment and each individual dimensional variation has been categorized with respect to its overall effects on the selected metrics. By doing this, it is possible to identify the critical points where the dynamic behavior of the vehicle is more sensitive to the resulting dimensional variation, therefore creating a new criteria to define the appropriate tolerance control for the manufacturing and assembly of the related parts.

The Brazilian automotive market presents special characteristics: at the same time that it demands similar technologies applied in developed markets like USA and Europe for luxury cars, in the sub-compact entry-level segments (a segment where the profit margin is very tight) there are unique characteristics that justify the development of different cars. Taking into consideration the mini cars segment, there is no car developed specifically for the Brazilian market. While the mini cars development for the entry level segment is still rare, every new auto show presents new proposals and some of them are on the streets, but most are mainly focused in the luxury segment. These vehicles currently in the market are in a price range where it is not economically feasible for them to be acquired by someone who is coming from a motorcycle-based usage.

The automotive industry is continuously striving to reduce vehicle mass by reducing the mass of components including wheel bearings. A typical wheel bearing assembly is mostly steel, including both the wheel and knuckle mounting flanges. Mass optimization of the wheel hub has traditionally been accomplished by reducing the cross-sectional thickness of these components. Recently bearing suppliers have also investigated the use of alternative materials. While bearing component performance is verified through analysis and testing by the supplier, additional effects from system integration and performance over time also need to be comprehended. In a recent new vehicle architecture, the wheel bearing hub flange was reduced to optimize it for low mass. In addition, holes were added for further mass reduction. The design met all the supplier and OEM component level specifications.