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One of the primary concern during assessment of structural integrity of vehicle bodies is the quality of joints used therein. The increased trend in vehicle weight reduction (through use of thin sheet panels) calls for more critical evaluation of the quality of such joints. The electric Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) is one of the largely used joining process for vehicle body structure. Besides the quality of sheet metal, the quality of RSW joints is largely governed by the process parameters e.g. weld current, hold time, squeeze time etc. The quality of RSW joints for durability can be assessed by mechanical strength and fatigue life. The paper presents a methodology for durability assessment of such joints using laboratory specimens and arriving at optimum values of process parameters to maximise the fatigue life. The methodology presented makes extensive use of Design of Experiment (DOE) techniques for better reliability of the results.

The acceptance criterion of any vehicle in terms of user comfort invariably depends on the vehicle interior noise and vibration characteristics. The levels of sound energy and structural excitation inside the vehicle compartment measures the amount of annoyance in terms of quality and comfort. For vehicle interior noise abatement and noise treatment, it is desirable to quantify the noise sources by determining the sound power contribution from each vehicle component/panel, acoustic leakages inside the vehicle, body panel vibrations, gearshift lever and steering wheel vibrations. Many a times, it is necessary to arrive at benchmarks or targets for the various sources of noise in order to refine the systems. The present paper describes a methodology for interior noise source identification and its analysis for benchmarking. Two different vehicles of the same class but of different makes were compared and evaluated for interior noise and vibration levels.