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As we all know, automotive headliners are an essential component of any car’s interior as they cover all the internal components and provide a clean and finished look. Headliners not only increase the aesthetic appeal of a car’s interior, but also acts as an insulation and sound absorption source. As per the latest Government norms, Curtain Airbag (henceforth called as CAB) has been made mandatory and this change calls for the corresponding changes in the Headliner packaging of all passenger vehicles. In general, curtain air-bag deployment calls for a twist open of Headliner at lateral sides (a portion below Hinge-line) during the deployment. This enables the inflated airbag to flow inside the passenger cabin to protect the passenger from any injury. Conventionally no components are packaged below the hinge-line area of headliner to avoid obstruction for CAB deployment and any part fly-off concerns.

Restraint systems in automotives are inevitable for the safety of passengers. Seat belts are one such restraint system in automotives that prevent drivers and passengers from being injured during a crash by restraining them back. Seatbelt on automotives has interface with Body-in-white (henceforth called as BIW) and Trim parts in-order to serve its purpose at vehicle level. One such interface part of seat belt is the web guide, which assists and ensures the nylon web’s smooth motion at different seat track positions. Web-guides on automotives ensure the flawless motion of seat belt web at pillar trim areas. In this paper, we are discussing alternate ways of assisting the seat belt web without the web-guide as a separate part. In-order to assist and ensure the motion of nylon web in its trajectory, we have extended the flange of the pillar trim involved.

Restraint systems in automotives are inevitable for the safety of passengers. Curtain airbag is one such restraint system in automotives that reduces the risk of injury to passengers during crash, without which head injury is inevitable during side crash of a vehicle. So successful deployment of curtain airbag (henceforth called as CAB) is very important in automotive safety during crash. This paper dwells about the optimization done in ramp bracket angle with successful deployment of curtain airbag. This optimization has paved the way for increasing the head-roominess by ~15% and to respect the safety and styling intent in the vehicle successfully. Providing a ramp bracket at the lower bottom side of CAB guides the airbag successfully during deployment. Ramp bracket angle plays a vital role in guiding the airbag inside the passenger’s cabin without any obstruction.

As customers are inching towards adoption of electric vehicles as an alternative to internal combustion engines, automotive OEM’s will have to embrace this change and equip with new product development process. When it comes to Electric Vehicle (EV) in comparison with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), NVH plays a major differentiator for vehicle refinement. Squeak and rattles will account for 20-25% of overall in-cabin noise source in an electric vehicle, most of which is observed from interior trims. Trims are mounted using small plastic clips which function as attachments and play a significant role in part retention and part integrity during normal operation and in case of any transient events. The engineering specifications for selecting a clip is force in newtons and it is mostly driven by ease of assembly, serviceability, and durability. A single DOF system with a specimen mass is developed and stiffness and damping are calculated based on transmissibility.

Mechanical control cables or Bowden cables are widely used in various applications for push-pull actions of mechanical systems. In mid-segment tractors, the linkage systems are designed along with control cables to actuate controls such as throttle, braking, transmission shift, position control, etc. due to its design flexibility. Output force and travel efficiency are two major performance parameters that depend on the routing, cable design composition, friction material, load transfer, etc. Virtual simulations can be used to predict cable performance and efficiency. There are different methodologies currently used to model the cable. These available methods can accurately predict either performance or travel efficiency. There is no method available in-house to predict both these parameters. In this paper, a new cable modeling method is proposed by authors using multi-body simulation (MBS) software MSC ADAMS.

In automotive manual transmission gearboxes, the synchronizer rings play a vital role in gear shift operations. The efficiency of the synchronizer ring depends upon the frictional surface geometry. The critical parameter is the synchronizer ring frictional surface circularity. The circularity deviation causes higher synchronizer ring wear and poor cone torque generation. With the current manufacturing methods and the thickness of the synchronizer ring, circularity improvement is a challenge. The synchronizer ring thread turned part is lapped to improve the circularity. Reduction in circularity can be improved by optimizing the lapping operation. In this work, an optimal lapping condition was developed using statistical methods. Taguchi DOE was used to analyze the different parameter combinations along with the noise parameter – different ranges of circularity variation in turning operation. This helps to find the best lapping parameter settings to improve the reduction in circularity.

Manual transmissions are the preferred transmission for drivers who love sporty gear shifts. Manual transmission vehicles are cheaper, very efficient, and offer quick gear shifts. Worldwide manual transmission contributes to 36.15% and in India it contributes overall 80% of today's market share. The customers expect a very smooth gearshift which is a challenge to achieve in all ambient temperatures. In a gear shift event, the synchronizers synchronize the speed of the gears. The force applied at the gear shift knob, generates the cone torque and stops the rotating input shaft for the Neutral (N) to 1 gear shifting. The early morning gear shifts have high gear shift effort. This effort is getting reduced with the increase in temperature. This is due to the drag in the gearbox which is inevitable. This work focuses on improving the very first gear shift event of N to 1 after the engine crank from cold (8°) to hot (80°) condition.

The global automotive industry is growing rapidly in recent years and the market competition has increased drastically. There is a high demand for passenger car segment vehicles with high torque delivery and fuel economy for a pleasant drivability experience. Also, to meet the more stringent emission requirements, automakers are trying very hard to reduce the overall vehicle gross weight. In lowering both fuel consumption and CO2 generation, serious efforts have been made to reduce the overall engine weight. An engine cylinder block is generally considered to be the heaviest part within a complete engine and block alone accounts for 3-4% of the total weight of the average vehicle, thus playing a key role in weight reduction consideration. Aluminum casting alloys as a substitute for the traditional cast iron can mean a reduction in engine block weight between 40 and 55% [9], even if the lower strength of aluminum compared to grey cast iron is considered.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) should innovate ways to delight customers by creating affordable products with improved drive experience and occupant comfort. Vehicle refinement is an important initiative that is often take-up by the project teams to ensure that the product meets the customer’s expectations. A few important aspects of vehicle refinement include improving the Noise Vibration Harshness (NVH), ride and handling performance pertaining to the Functional Image (FI) of the product. Optimizing the suspension design variables to meet both ride and handling performance is often challenging as improving the ride will have a deteriorating effect on handling and vice-versa. The present work involves Multi-Objective Design Optimization (MDO) of the suspension system of an automotive Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) platform considering both ride and handling requirements, simultaneously.

The major area in which the automotive manufacturers are working is to produce high-performance vehicles with lighter weight, higher fuel economy and lower emissions. In this regard, hollow camshafts are widely used in modern diesel and gasoline engines due to their inherent advantages of less rotational inertia, less friction, less weight and better design flexibility. However, the dynamic loads of chain system, valve train and fuel injection pump (if applicable) makes it challenging to design over-head hollow camshafts with the required factor of safety (FOS). In the present work, high-fidelity FE model of a hollow camshaft assembly is simulated to evaluate the structural performance for assembly loads, valve train operating loads, fuel injection pump loads and chain system loads. The investigation is carried out in a high power-density (70 kW/lit) 4-cylinder in-line diesel engine.

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) simulations are an integral part of the product development process in an automotive industry. The conventional approach involving pre-processing, solving and post-processing is highly time-consuming. Emerging digital technologies such as Machine Learning (ML) can be implemented in early stage of product development cycle to predict key performances without need of traditional CAE. Oil Canning loadcase simulates the displacement and buckling behavior of vehicle outer styling panels. A ML model trained using historical oil canning simulation results can be used to predict the maximum displacement and classify buckling locations. This enables product development team in faster decision making and reduces overall turnaround time. Oil canning FE model features such as stiffness, distance from constraints, etc., are extracted for training database of the ML model. Initially, 32 model features were extracted from the FE model.

In order to sustain in automobile industry, fuel economy and robustness are playing vital role in vehicle. Every gram of weight will have an impact on fuel economy, thus burning a hole in consumers pocket and contributing heavily to the carbon footprint. Composite material development plays important role in meeting the stringent self-imposed targets of the automotive manufacturers and light weighting is becoming a prime option for improving Fuel Economy. The main objective of this paper is to optimize the weight of the luggage lid floor and reduce its cost without compromising on the strength by changing the raw material and manufacturing process. This part is in trunk compartment of the vehicle. Main function of this part is to withstand the luggage load under various user loading patterns at varied temperature and while driving on different road conditions.

The tractor usage is growing in the world due to derivative of rural economy and farming process. It needed wide range of implements based on the applications of the customer. The tractor plays a major role in Agricultural and Construction applications. In a tractor, hydraulic system is act as a heart of the vehicle which controls the draft and position of the implement. Hydraulic system consists of Powertrain assembly, 3-point linkage and DC sensing assembly. The design of hydraulic powertrain assembly is challenging because the loads acting on the system varies based on the type of implement, type of crop, stage of farming and soil conditions etc., Hydraulic powertrain assembly is designed based on standards like IS 12207-2019 which regulates the test methods for the system based on the lift capacity of the tractor. In this paper, virtual simulation has been established to optimize the design and perform the test correlation.

Ground clearance plays a vital role in an off-road vehicle during off roading. Higher the ground clearance, higher is the difficulty during ingress & egress of the vehicle. This brings in the necessity to provide entry-assist grab-handles for vehicle with more ground clearance (>200mm). Entry-assist grab handles alleviates the pain of the occupants during ingress and egress. For entry-assist grab handles’ purpose to be served, it should provide comfortable ergonomic grip & have to take the load of passengers while ingress or egress through-out the complete life cycle of the vehicle. Entry Assist grab handles can be fitted on A-Pillar zone to assist first row passengers & on B-pillar zone to assist second row passenger. Providing entry-assist grab handles on pillar trims make the grab-handles exposed to head-impact zone and hence, in most of the cases, it should pass the head impact regulations framed for respective countries.

In today’s scenario, internal combustion engines have conflicting requirements of high power density and best in class weight. High power density leads to higher loads on engine components and calls for a material addition to meet the durability targets. Lightweight design not only helps to improve fuel economy but also reduces the overall cost of the engine. Material change from cast iron to aluminium has a huge potential for weight reduction as aluminium has 62% lesser mass density. But this light-weighting impacts the stiffness of the parts as elastic modulus drops by around 50%. Hence, this calls for revisiting the design and usage of optimization tools for load-bearing members on the engine to arrive at optimized sections and ribbing profiles. This paper discusses the optimization approach for one of the engine components i.e., the FEAD (front end accessory drive) bracket.

In the automotive industry the requirement for low emissions has led to the demand for lightweight vehicle structures. Light weighting can be achieved through different iterative approaches but is usually time consuming. Current paper highlights deployment of the multi-loadcase optimization approach for light weighting. This work involves developing a process for multiple loadcase optimization for automotive hood. The main goal is to minimize the weight of a hood assembly by meeting strength and stiffness targets. The design variables considered in this study are thickness of the panels. Design constraints were set for stress and stiffness based on DVP (Design Verification Plan) requirement. Optimization workflow is setup in mode-frontier with design objective of minimizing weight of hood.

Bolted joints are the most used joints in automotive suspension assemblies. They are expected to retain the strength over the course of useful life of the vehicle and contribute to durability in a big way through reduction of stress amplitudes. Any sort of loosening or slip or breakage in these joints can lead to noise or catastrophic failures. In the past, such issues were addressed through thumb rules and design guidelines. However, with the focus on first-time right tests with reduced validation time it has become important to upfront predict the suspension joint integrity through simulation. Toward this objective, a novel approach was developed to simulate the suspension joint integrity for bolted joints. This approach considers various parameters like bolt preload, tolerance stackup of the parts in the joint, coefficients of friction of various interfaces, quality of contact and effect of deformation at the thread interface on joint integrity.

The increasing demand for higher specific power and the need for weight reduction and decrease of emissions have become the driving factors of product development in the automotive market today. Substitution of high-density materials and more precise adjustment of material parameters help in significant weight decrease, but it is accompanied by undesirable cost increase and manufacturing complexity. One of the approaches to optimize the design is through the process of integration which involves integrating the functional elements of two or more components into one and achieving a reduction in weight and cost without impacting required performance. This paper explains a similar approach followed as a part of the Design and Development of 1.5 L, 3 Cylinder CRDI Diesel Engine for a new vehicle platform, developed for automotive passenger car application.

The stringent emission regulations demand highly complex after-treatment systems. The packaging and functional requirements of the after-treatment system demand very close coupling of the diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) with the turbocharger outlet. The sealing effectiveness between the turbocharger and DOC is ensured by the V-band grooved clamp along with the suitable gasket. This V-band grooved clamp is widely used in diesel engines due to its ease of assembly and low cost. Since the V-band grooved clamp is subjected to a very high temperature, vibration, thermal shock, a robust and holistic validation is required to ensure the functional and safety requirements. Despite its wide range of applications, the testing and validation methodologies required to effectively validate the strength and other aspects of the clamp are not fully defined. In the present work, the authors discuss the various design validation methods involved during the development of the V-band grooved clamp.

Light weighting is an effective strategy in increasing energy efficiency in the automotive industry. In this paper, mass reduction with cost benefit was targeted in an exterior trim panel. Polypropylene copolymer (PPCP) compound was developed for a large exterior trim panel (1400 X 700mm) having an integrated grill mesh. The part had challenging requirements in terms of slow speed impact, structural durability, dimensional stability, aesthetics, thermal ageing resistance, cold impact resistance, scratch resistance and weathering resistance. By having ultra-high flow behavior, optimum tensile strength, modulus, impact strength and thermal properties, the PPCP compound met the requirements for a thin wall exterior trim panel with a thickness of 2.6mm. Structural durability of the design was validated by virtual engineering. Part design and material combinations with better tooling design iterations were analyzed by using mold flow analysis.