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Only products with high quality, low cost, and short concept-to-customer time will continue to have a high market share. For this reason, auto parts suppliers must strive to gain superior engineering capability. One key step in this pursuit is to implement widespread CAE (Computer-Aided-Engineering) in PDP (product development process) [1]. FEA (Finite Element Analysis), in particular, has been identified as a subject that deserves concentrated effort. Specifically, FEA needs to be used broadly and effectively in every phase of PDP ranging from concept evaluation and prototyping, to pre-production design and troubleshooting. However, resource requirement and process quality assurance are major issues in this undertaking [2, 3]. As a counter-measurement, developing product specific FEA guidelines has been identified as a priority strategic initiative. The focus of our presentation is on how to develop standard FEA procedures to guide FEA jobs.

This paper describes an analytical process for the design of a brake shoe assembly that consists of the linings, shoe table, webs, and rivets. One fundamental performance requirement for the brake shoe assembly is that the linings will not lose clamp force within the desired service life. Key elements of the analytical process involved developing an FEA model with given loading conditions and developing a mathematical model to study the influence parameters of the forces acting on the lining.

Although the methodology of straight bevel gear tooth form generation has been known for quite some time, few references are available in the literature. Presented in this paper are the general numerical procedures of spherical involute and octoid tooth form generations. We have proven that a tooth form generated from the latter approach, by simulating the rotation of a crown gear, matches exactly with the one from the former approach of unwraping a wire from a base circle. The advantage of using general numerical procedures rather than closed form equations is the flexibility of generating both standard and modified gear tooth profiles. In making the forging die, the gear tooth form must be developed with considerations of both the theoretical optimal geometry, and the dimensional compensation for heat treatment distortion.