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The trend towards battery voltage vacuum fluorescent displays continues the technological advances in design and construction of VFD's, as they are applied to the automobile environment. With the ever increasing use of electronic displays for electronically tuned radios (ETR's), compact disc (CD) players, and other entertainment systems, advances in battery voltage displays and their associated drive circuitry have become a necessity. With the inherent advantages of low voltage operation and high information density, VFD's will continue to dominate the automobile audio markets. This paper will discuss battery voltage displays, the basic circuitry necessary to operate a vacuum fluorescent display, and comment on the “off the shelf” controller and driver circuitry available.

The phenomenal success of the small car is leading to many engineering changes in the automobile industry. It has brought increased emphasis on weight reduction on both small and full-size cars. Improving reliability and designing to eliminate grease fittings have also become important objectives.

The energy-absorbing bumper system designed for the 1974 Volkswagen in described. Theoretical requirements in bumper design are explained, with emphasis on bumper height, energy tolerance needs, energy absorption, and systems for absorbing the energy involved. The six systems studied are assessed, and the final design chosen is explained. The paper also compares bumper requirements as specified in Europe and the United States.

Turbocharging technique will play a fundamental role in the near future not only to improve automotive engine performance, but also to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions both in Spark Ignition and diesel automotive applications. To achieve excellent engine performance for road application, it is necessary to overcome some typical turbocharging drawbacks i.e., low end torque level and transient response. Experimental studies, developed on dedicated test facilities, can supply a lot of information to optimize the engine-turbocharger matching, especially if tests can be extended to the typical engine operating conditions (unsteady flow). Different numerical procedures have been developed at the University of Naples to predict automotive turbocharger compressor performance both under steady and unsteady flow conditions. A classical 1D approach, based on the employment of compressor characteristic maps, was firstly followed.

The 2005 Ford GT high performance sports car was designed and built in keeping with the heritage of the 1960's LeMans winning GT40 while maintaining the image of the 2002 GT40 concept vehicle. This paper reviews the technical challenges in designing and building a super car in 12 months while meeting customer expectations in performance, styling, quality and regulatory requirements. A team of dedicated and performance inspired engineers and technical specialists from Ford Motor Company Special Vehicle Teams, Research and Advanced Engineering, Mayflower Vehicle Systems, Roush Industries, Lear, and Saleen Special Vehicles was assembled and tasked with designing the production 2005 vehicle in record time.

The 2018 Ultimate GD&T Pocket Guide explains the most common rules, symbols, and concepts used in geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. This one-of-a-kind reference guide includes more than 100 detailed examples to illustrate concepts. Numerous charts for quick reference provide explanations of each GD&T symbol, modifier, and more. This valuable on-the-job resource clarifies how to interpret standard-compliant technical drawings that use ASME Y14.5-2018.

COMVEC™ conference is the only North American event that addresses vehicles and equipment spanning on-highway, off-highway, agricultural, construction, industrial, military, and mining sectors.

Thermal Management Systems Symposium industry discusses latest regulatory impacts, applications to reduce engine emissions, conserve energy, reduce noise, improve the cabin environment, increase overall vehicle performance passenger, commercial vehicle industry.

This paper is concerned with 3D stretch bending of aluminium extrusions. A design method for prediction of dimensional tolerances is presented, focusing on cross-sectional deformations and elastic springback. The model is successfully applied to a complex 3D formed part. Based on the present analysis, it is concluded that the required dimensional tolerances of a product can be determined early in the design phase by use of this method.

Demands for new features, increasing electrical loads, and improved fuel-economy are driving development of 42V PowerNets in automobiles. Shorter design cycles, increased complexity and a focus on quality are making robust design processes a strategic advantage for competitive manufacturers. Hardware prototypes are both time-consuming and inadequate for the task of verifying performance over a broad range of operating modes, environmental conditions and part-to-part variations. This paper outlines the use of an advanced design-flow, from idea to manufacturing, for vehicle power systems. It starts with the analysis of different topologies down to the subsystem modeling of a power window system. Finally it integrates everything to a Digital Mock-Up (DMU) and analysis of the entire system. Dynamic interactions among the various supplies, converters and loads are examined. System stability and performance are assessed under normal and extreme operating conditions.

The measurement of the contact forces between road and tires is of fundamental importance while designing road vehicles. In this paper, the design and the employment of measuring wheels for trucks and heavy vehicles is presented. The measuring wheels have been optimized in order to obtain high stiffness and the approximately the same mass of the wheels normally employed. The proposed multicomponent measuring wheels are high- accuracy instruments for measuring the dynamic loads during handling and durability testing. The measuring wheels can replace the wheels of the truck under normal operation. Such family of wheels plays a major role in modern road vehicles development. The measuring wheel concept design is based on a patented three-spoke structure connected to the wheel rim. The spokes are instrumented by means of strain gauges and the measuring wheel is able to measure the three forces and the three moments acting at the interface between the tire and the road.

This paper describes the design and development of the new 60 hp class 910 wheel loader, D3 crawler tractor, and 931 track loader. Special emphasis was placed on designing all vehicles concurrently to achieve lowest possible cost by utilizing a high degree of commonality.

“There's nothing new under the sun,” the old proverb says. But you only have to read a magazine, scan a periodical, listen to the radio, watch television, or glance at the multitude of ads that promise that such and such product is the latest trend or has up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology, to seemingly prove the old proverb wrong. However, old proverbs become old because they withstand the test of time. In this case, a hasty judgement should be withheld. Currently, as in the past, the above holds true for car radios as well. Whether in the United States, Europe, Canada or Latin America, the public has always been susceptible to last minute technological advances. It is curious then, that as far as car radio styling is concerned, their appearance has been typically rather conservative, and that it is only recently that styling has begun to change to be more in tune with the times.

The advantage of using the heater conductors of an automobile backlite as a broadcast receiving antenna, as compared to the use of a conventional telescopic whip, include reductions in damage, corrosion, aerodynamic drag and manufacurers’ costs. The paper develops an approach to the design of backlite antenna systems aimed at maximising the receiver signal input by attention to the form and position of the heater conductors and by minimising the deleterious effects of the feeder cable to the radio. Adequate levels of signal are shown to be available at lf, mf and vhf. To optimise performance, a buffer amplifier is used at lf and mf and the antenna is matched to a low-noise amplifier at vhf. Test results for sedan, hatchback and station wagon vehicles presented show very acceptable performance, in many cases better than those of conventional whip antennas.