Search Results

Background: The Indian automobile industry, including the auto component industry, is a significant part of the country’s economy and has experienced growth over the years. India is now the world’s 3rd largest passenger car market and the world’s second-largest two-wheeler market. Along with the boon, the bane of road accident fatalities is also a reality that needs urgent attention, as per a study titled ‘Estimation of Socio-Economic Loss due to Road Traffic Accidents in India’, the socio-economic loss due to road accidents is estimated to be around 0.55% to 1.35% of India’s GDP [27] Ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) accident data shows that the total number of fatalities on the road are the highest (in number terms) in the world. Though passenger car occupant fatalities have decreased over the years, the fatalities of vulnerable road users are showing an increasing trend. India has committed to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2030.

Fun to drive, pick-up of vehicle, high acceleration feeling of vehicle, time to reach max velocities are some parameters prevailing in the passenger vehicle market. In addition to focusing on information about fuel economy declared by manufacturer, the customer also has drivability related criteria in his mind. Although drivability is subjective, it can be judged by using various parameters like maximum speed, pick-up feeling, overtaking acceleration, time to reach 0 – 100 km/h or 0 – 60 km/h, etc. While comparing two vehicles of the same segment, one vehicle may perform better on some of the parameters while losses on others. To decide overall drive performance of a vehicle based on various measured performance related parameters, a methodology is defined. This will help to understand the overall performance of a vehicle holistically and to compare its performance with other vehicles in a better way.

Automobile Catalyst are used to convert Harmful gases emitted by vehicle (CO, HC, and NOx) to less Harmful gas (CO2, H2O and N2), Catalyst Loading comprises of Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium (Rare earth metals) metal powders combined in slurry and wash-coated onto a ceramic brick. Ever since the introduction of BS6 Emissions norm (stricter emission regulation), Catalyst loading content has increased in all vehicles. The Price of these rare earth metal are increasing day by day. Typically, a BS6 regulation catalyst contains a few grams of loading content. In some vehicles there are more than one catalyst (due to regulation requirement) and in some cases catalysts are also located in the underbody, in such cases, Number and location of catalyst makes the vehicle an easy target for thieves. Recently local police authorities around the country have captured many catalysts theft gangs.

Recently, the Flexible Pedestrian Legform Impactor (or Flex-PLI) - an advancement over the existing EEVC legform - was included in the Global Technical Regulation for Pedestrian Safety viz. GTR-9. The legform tool undergoes impact testing with vehicle at 40kmph in order to evaluate the frontal structure of vehicle for Pedestrian Safety. Being more biofidelic design over the old EEVC legform, Flex-PLI is more flexible and sensitive towards different vehicle designs, shapes and inner bumper structure. This flexibility and sensitiveness of its design also calls for examining the Manufactured FlexPLI for its efficacy under impact testing in terms of its Durability, Repeatability and Reproducibility. This study aims at validating the performance of the test device by building a platform for computing the variations in test results. In this study, three key aspects are identified to measure the performance of this device - Durability, Repeatability, and Reproducibility.

With introduction of CAFÉ norms in India from Apr’17, the manufacturer of all M1 Category vehicles (not exceeding 3,500kg GVW) has to ascertain that they comply with Annual Corporate Average CO2 Target as defined in AIS-137 regulation which is becoming stricter in future. Hence CO2 emissions are becoming one of the major focus parameters during vehicle development. The assessment of CAFÉ compliance involves multiple steps. Firstly, test agency provides Type Approval and Conformity of Production emission test reports to the Designated Agency. Accordingly, every manufacturer submits Fuel consumption report/Passbook to the Designated Agency on annual basis. After verification of all data, the Designated Agency issues a status of compliance to the Manufacturer. Such detailed assessment protocol presents a huge challenge for any manufacturer in maintaining the consistency/accuracy of CO2 produced by manufactured vehicles within the Type Approved Limit.

In today’s Indian automotive industry, vehicles are becoming more complex and require more efforts to develop. Also, new and upcoming regulations demand more trials under varied driving conditions to ensuring robustness of emission control. Combined with expectations of customer to get new products more frequently, requires solutions and methods that can allow more trials with required accuracy to ensure compliance to stricter regulation and delivery a quality product. This translates into more trials in less time during the development life cycle. Recently, to overcome above challenge, there has been focus on simulating the vehicles trials in engine bench environment. ‘Road to Lab to Math’ (RLM) is a methodology to reduce the effort of On-road testing and replace it with laboratory testing and mathematical models. Also, on-road testing of prototype vehicles is expensive as it requires physical parts.

Vehicle Hood being the face of a passenger car poses the challenge to meet the regulatory and aesthetic requirements. Urge to make a saleable product makes aesthetics a primary condition. This eventually makes the role of structure optimization much more important. Pedestrian protection- a recent development in the Indian automotive industry, known for dynamics of cost competitive cars, has posed the challenge to make passenger cars meeting the regulation at minimal cost. The paper demonstrates structure optimization of hood and design of peripheral parts for meeting pedestrian protection performance keeping the focus on low cost of ownership. The paper discusses development of an in-house methodology for meeting Headform compliance of a flagship model of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., providing detailed analysis of the procedure followed from introduction stage of regulatory requirement in the project to final validation of the engineering intent.

Hood is the closure provided in the frontal portion of the vehicle for covering the engine room. Any component disposed in the frontal portion of the vehicle becomes important because of aesthetic as well as regulatory requirements. Introduction of new regulations like pedestrian protection brings new challenges for the original equipment manufacturers and the governing authorities. Introduction of Pedestrian Protection regulation, a recent development in the automotive industry, has thrown several questions in front of original equipment manufacturers. This work explains the procedure to address such question and the learning associated with it.

Energy dissipation testing of vehicle's interior fitments is done at various defined locations as per the regulation ECE R21. Interior fitting impact tests became mandatory in April 2006 for models manufactured from April 2006 and April 2007 for models being manufactured before April 2006 in India. With the implementation of stringent safety regulations in India, it is mandatory that every manufacturer tests and certifies their product to comply with the automotive safety standards. Automotive industry has a challenging task of designing and evaluating the components that play a vital role in the event of an unfortunate accident. In this context, a number of tests on safety belt anchorages, seat anchorages and interior fittings such as instrument panel, steering wheel etc., are conducted.

The field of Passive Safety is of primary focus for the automobile manufacturers. Number of changes has been incorporated in today’s passenger car, which not only protects its occupants but also other road users. This revolutionary change in technology calls for new development in evaluation procedures. Crash testing of vehicles is one such massive field of research. The nature and cost of these tests increases the need for better measurement techniques. High speed cameras are often used in the crash tests and image processing is done to study the deformation characteristics, dummy kinematics and steering wheel displacements. This paper discusses the effect of key factors like Camera positioning and 2D Calibration on the analysis of high speed images. The paper also discusses the experimental evaluation carried out to validate the same.