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The growing demand of fuel and cost saving on vehicle, today’s vehicle manufacturer are working on various weight reduction initiative in EV. Lighter weight vehicle have bigger challenges to meet NVH requirement. There are two types of EV called modified and adopted EV’s are commonly in use. The sub frame type of EV system comes under the category of modified EV. In this paper, a mounting system is studied and compared for a cradle type EV as well as sub frame or saddle type EV. MATLAB based optimization tools are used for parameter optimization. The focus is put on the optimization of mounting system location and stiffness for energy optimization, CoG and TRA-EA optimization. The best engine mounting system is compared and adopted based on simulation. 12 DOF studied to address high frequency resonance issues for a sub frame type EV. Finally robustness of the system is checked based on various simulation and optimization.

Vehicle manufacturers strive hard to achieve best in class fuel economy. Apart from light weighting of the structures, driveline optimization and reduction of tire rolling resistance, tapping of parasitic losses is also important and helps to optimize the design of auxiliary power consuming systems. One of such system studied in this work is power steering system. The effect of parasitic losses on fuel economy is predominant for small commercial vehicle compare to heavy vehicles. The evaluation of deterioration in the fuel economy due to implementation of power steering system on one of the small commercial vehicle is carried out using multiple virtual simulation tools. Virtual route profile is modelled using longitude, latitude and altitude data captured through GPS and steering duty cycle is mapped in terms of steering rotation angle. A system level model of hydraulic power steering system is developed.

The torque required to tighten any threaded joint is different from the necessary torque to untighten threaded bolt or nut, and it is not observed or widely known since this is a regular and straightforward operation. Typically the torque needed to untighten a newly tightened clamp is around 10% to 30% less than the torque to stretch it further. During tightening a threaded bolt, a significant amount of torque required to overcome friction in the threads and under the nut face. The proportion of the torque used to overcome frictional resistance depends upon the friction value. When we tighten a joint with a coefficient of friction of 0.12, only about approximately 14% of the torque required to stretch the fastener producing the clamp load with 86% of the torque is lost overcoming friction. The torque needed to pull the bolt always acts in the untightening direction, resulted in untightening torque lags behind the tightening torque.

Production variations of a heavy duty truck for its vibrations were measured and then analyzed through an Ishikawa diagram. Noise and Control factors of the truck idle shake were indentified. The major cause was found to be piece to piece variations of its power-train (PT) rubber mounts. To overcome the same, a new nominal level of the mount stiffness was sought based on minimization of a cost function related to vibration transmissibility and fatigue damage of the mounts under dynamic loadings. Physical prototypes of such mounts were proved to minimize the variations of the driver's seat shake at idling among various trucks of the same design. These learning's are useful for design of various subsystems or components to refine the full vehicle-Noise Vibration Harshness (NVH) at the robust design level.

Automotive Audio Signaling system is very vital and is controlled by local regulatory requirements. In India, usage of horn is very frequent due to highly congested traffic conditions, and is in the order of 10 to 12 times per kilometer. This results in the deterioration of the “contact”, which enables the functioning of the device. Hence the device requires premature replacement or frequent tuning, which are time consuming and results an increase in warranty costs and cost of service as well. Thus, to overcome this problem a unique and novel approach is proposed in this paper which enhances the life of the automobile horn, by implementing an additional pair of Contacts on circuit breakers, providing a parallel path for the power supply. This effort ensures that the life of the horn is increased by 5 times than the existing design.

Nowadays, E- commerce and logistics business model is booming in India with road transport as a major mode of delivery system using containers. As competition in such business are on rise, different ways of improving profit margins are being continuously evolved. One such scenario is to look at reducing transportation cost while reducing fuel consumption. Traditionally, aero dynamics of commercial vehicles have never been in focus during their product development although literature shows major part of total fuel energy is consumed in overcoming aerodynamic drag at and above 60 kmph in case of large commercial vehicle. Hence improving vehicle exterior aerodynamic performance gives opportunity to reduce fuel consumption and thereby business profitability. Also byproduct of this improvement is reduced emissions and meeting regulatory requirements.

Vehicle Ergonomics is one of the most vital factor to be considered in vehicle design and development, as the customer wants a comfortable and performance oriented vehicle. An uncomfortable driving posture can lead to painful driving experiences for longer hauls. The control pedals viz. Accelerator, Brake and clutch pedal (ABC Pedals), are the most frequently used parts in the vehicle, their proper positioning with respect to human anthropology is of prime importance, from driver comfort viewpoint. The methodology currently used for optimizing ergonomics with respect to the positioning of pedals in a vehicle included; measuring anthropometric angles manually with the help of H-Point Machine, subjective jury analysis and through software like RAMSIS, JACK, etc. Manual measurement doesn’t give the flexibility of iterations for optimization. The subjective analysis is based on insinuations thereby, cannot be standardized.

Today, noise perceived by the occupants is becoming an important factor driving the design standards for the design of most of the interior assemblies in an automotive vehicle. Buzz, Squeak and Rattle (BSR) is a major contributor towards the perceived noise of annoyance to the vehicle occupants. An automotive vehicle consists of many chassis assemblies which are the potential sources of BSR noise. The potential locations of critical BSR noise could be contained within such assemblies as well as across their boundaries. Engine mount design is major area where BSR noises can be heard inside cabin on various road conditions. Natural rubber is regular rubber used in engine mount applications but in this paper BSR problems are solved by changing the rubber compound i.e., NR+BR (slippery compound). Detailed case study is presented where slippery rubber compound is used which is solving BSR issue and also meeting durability targets.

The automotive industry is facing a challenge as efficiency improvements are required to address the strict emission norms which in turn requires high performance downsized, lightweight IC engines. The increasing demand for lightweight engine needs high strength to weight ratio materials. To meet high strength to weight ratio, castings are preferable. However due to strength limitations for critical crankshaft applications, it forces to use costly forgings such as micro alloyed forging steel and Martensitic (after heat treatment) forging steel. To reduce the cost impact, high strength Austempered Ductile iron (ADI) casting is developed for crankshaft applications to substitute steel forgings. Austempered Ductile Iron is having an excellent mechanical properties due to aus-ferritic structure. The improved properties of developed ADI Crankshaft over steel forged crankshaft offers additional weight advantage.

In the context of vehicular safety and performance, brake pads represent a critical component, ensuring controlled driving and accident prevention. These pads consist of friction materials that naturally degrade with usage, potentially leading to safety issues like delayed braking response and NVH disturbances. Unfortunately, assessing brake pad wear remains challenging for vehicle owners, as these components are typically inaccessible from the outside. Moreover, Indian OEMs have not yet integrated brake pad life estimation features. This research introduces a hybrid machine learning approach for predicting brake pad remaining useful life, comprising three modules: a weight module, utilizing mathematical formulations based on longitudinal vehicle dynamics to estimate vehicle weight necessary for calculating braking kinetic energy dissipation; and temperature and wear modules, employing deep neural networks for predictive modeling.

Leaf springs are used for vehicle suspension to support the load. These springs are made of flat sections of spring steel in single or in stack of multiple layers, held together in bracketed assembly. The key characteristics of leaf spring are defined as ability to distribute stresses along its length and transmit a load over the width of the chassis structures. The most common leaf spring steels are carbon steels alloyed with Cr and micro-alloyed with Ti, V and Nb. The specific thermomechanical process and alloying elements result in specific strength and fatigue properties for spring steels. The unique properties which facilitate use of spring steel in leaf spring suspensions are ability to withstand considerable twisting or bending forces without any distortion. The microstructure of these steel determines the performance and reflects the process of steel manufacturing. The performance is mainly determined by evaluating fatigue life durability.

Corrosion in automotive industry is broadly categorized into cosmetic & perforation corrosion. Cosmetic corrosion comprises of superficial red rust which is deleterious to the overall aesthetic appeal of the vehicle but can be rectified. Perforation corrosion involves complete erosion of the panel, compromising structural integrity of the respective part. Perforation corrosion demands part replacement. In order to tackle this menace, automotive OEMs have formulated varied corrosion strategies in terms of selection of appropriate substrate, part design & surface protection scheme. Validation of various corrosion strategies become pivotal during the development phase of various parts and assemblies. Traditionally, Salt Spray Test (SST) has been used to determine corrosion life of materials/parts/assemblies. This test however does not simulate real-world conditions.

The small commercial vehicle business is driven by demand in logistic, last mile transportation and white goods market. And to cater these businesses operational and safety needs, they require closed container on vehicle. As of now, very few OEM’s provide regulatory certified container vehicle because of constrains to meet inertia class of the vehicle. This paper focuses on design of a durable and extremely reliable container, made of the low-cost economy class glass fibre & core material. The present work provides the means to design the composite container for the N1 category of the vehicle. The weight of after-market metal container ranges between 300-350 Kg for this category of vehicle, which affects the overall fuel economy and emission of the vehicle. A detailed CAE analysis is done to design composite container suitable to meet inertia class targets and to achieve weight reduction of 30-40% as compared to metal container.

The properties of Cold drawn electric resistance welded, as drawn (CEW-AD) tubes and Electric resistance welded (ERW) tubes are vastly different. Deformation resistance of ERW tube is less than half that of CEW-AD tube, hence not preferred for structural applications, common practice being the use of CEW-AD tubes for Chassis cross members in vehicles. A new cost effective high strength ERW tube was developed which has been proved to be superior to the currently used CEW-AD tubes in terms of mechanical properties, formability, consistency and uniformity of the properties over the tube length. The newly developed tube through use of special micro alloy grade in ERW has made it possible to eliminate some of the manufacturing processes like annealing, phosphating, cold drawing etc. which has led to considerable cost saving.

Crank train torsional vibration is an important aspect for design and development of Powertrain for NVH refinement and durability. Crank train torsional vibration parameters like angular acceleration of flywheel or twist, depends upon various design parameters like geometry of crankshaft, mass of flywheel, stiffness of clutch, mass of pulley etc. It also depends upon engine operating conditions like engine speed, engine load, combustion peak pressure and combustion pressure variation etc. Most of these parameters are decided by engine power, torque, engine architecture and packaging constraints. Addition of torsional vibration damper (TVD), which works on the principle of tuned dynamic absorber, is commonly deployed design solution to control the torsional vibrations as well as stresses (to improve durability of crank train) induced in crank train assembly at specified modal frequency.

Today's automotive industry demands high quality component as well as system designs within very short period of time to provide more value added features to customers on one hand and to meet stringent safety standards on the other. To reconcile economy issues, design optimization has become a key issue. In the last few decades, many OEMs took to analytical tools like Computer-Aided-Engineering (CAE) tools in order to decrease the number of prototype builds and to speed up the time of development cycle. Although such analytical tools are relatively inexpensive to use and faster to implement as compared to the costly traditional design and testing processes: however, there are many variables that CAE tools cannot adequately consider, such as manufacturing processes, assembly, material anisotropy and residual stresses. Therefore, still smart measuring and testing techniques are required to substantiate the CAE results.

In a current competitive automotive market, weight and cost optimization is the need of an hour. Therefore it is important to explore use of alternative material which has less weight, low manufacturing cost and better strength. This paper presents methodology to achieve cost & weight reduction through use of Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) instead of alloy forging. ADI casting has lower density, physical properties at par with alloy forgings and lower manufacturing cost. Pivot arm is the one of the critical component of twin axle steering system which transfers the hydraulic torque from steering gearbox to second forward axle via linkage system. In order to design lightweight pivot arm, existing chromium alloy steel material is replaced with the Austempered ductile iron (ADI). Pivot arm is designed and validated digitally as well as bench test and results are found to be meeting cost and weight targets.

For sustainability, industries are now focusing on methodologies for Recycle, Reuse, Repair of a variety of industrial material. Cutting tools used in manufacturing of automobiles have therefore become a part of it. There are many ways in which cutting tools can be recycled. Be it by reshaping a used up throwaway type tool [1] or by redesigning a tool holder for the use of unused cutting edges [2]. An automobile part was redesigned for reuse of a used up tool [3]. By reforming, very large size grinding wheel used for crankshaft grinding can be reused after it gets smaller in diameter during crankshaft grinding operation [4]. This paper deals with two more implemented ideas to show that with a redesigned tool holder it was possible to reuse used up carbide inserts and significantly cut the manufacturing cost in addition to avoid manufacturing of new inserts and thus conserve natural resources.

Rubber hose and metallic pipe with crimped joints are extensively used in steering system assembly, transmission oil cooler system, brake system etc. to carry hydraulic fluid or lubricants from one place to another. The pipe and rubber hose assembly provides necessary flexibility for complex routing on the vehicle level. Design of hose and pipe assembly for this application are different due to difference in operating pressure and temperature requirement for vehicle application. This paper defines the criteria for design and validation of hose & pipe assembly used to connect automatic transmission with the cooler. Crimped joints are validated for their separation force, leakages, ability to withstand pressure pulsations, burst test etc. Parameters which influence the hose & pipe assembly durability are pipe end flaring dimensions, type of crimping, reinforcement type, its size, material and pattern, rubber material properties, crimping force, effective crimping diameter etc.

Vehicle aesthetic appearance is critical factor in the perceived quality of a vehicle. Auto OEM focuses on the improvement of perceived quality. The perceived quality of a vehicle is improved by achieving a superior finish on the visible parts. Plastic parts used in visible areas are painted to achieve a superior finish & aesthetic. However, the painting process is very energy intensive, releases a lot of harmful VOCs into the environment, emits carbon di-oxide into the environment & is a very costly process. Also, painted parts pose a challenge for recycling at the end of life. For painting one square meter area, around 6.5 Kg of co2 is released. Additionally, the painting cost contributes to around 60 % of the part cost. As the emphasis has increased on sustainability & reducing the cost, we took the challenge to develop novel mold in color material to eliminate the painting process without compromising the aesthetic & functional requirements of part.