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A new generation of instrument panels will be characterized by a single material design. In the design process, more and more attention is directed to the life cycle steps after the usage phase of parts, products or systems. For this reason, the aim of every designer should be the development of a recyclable part, product or system. The request for the development should not only be recyclability, but also economic efficiency as well as low environmental impact during production and usage phase. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for the development and design process to obtain an optimized economic and ecological (low environmental impact during the whole life cycle) product. A methodology, how Life Cycle Assessment could be integrated into the development and design process for parts, products and systems, will be presented.

The Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science of the University of Stuttgart has been investigating automotive parts, structures and cars during their life cycle in plenty cooperation with the European automobile producers and their suppliers for the last 9 years. Therefore a holistic approach has been developed to combine tasks from technique, economic and environment in a methodology called Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). The goal is to find a way to support designer and engineers as well as police makers and public with this three-dimensional interrelated information to have the possibility to manufacture future products in a more sustainable way without loosing contact two the traditional parameters technique and costs.

For integrating Life Cycle Assessment into the design process it is more and more necessary to generate models of single life cycle steps respectively manufacturing processes. For that reason it is indispensable to develop parametric processes. With such disposed processes the aim could only be to provide a tool where parametric environmental process models are available for a designer. With such a tool and the included models a designer will have the possibility to make an estimation of the probable energy consumption and needed additive materials for the applied manufacturing technology. Likewise if he has from the technical point of view the opportunity, he can shift the applied joining technology in the design phase by changing for instance the design.

The costs for development and production of draw dies for car outer panels are extremely high and should be reduced. Furthermore it is necessary to reduce the time for developing, designing and producing the dies for the production of parts. This paper discusses new press techniques, die designs and an adjustment program for press operators. The trend goes to single action presses with CNC-controlled multipoint cushion systems in the press table and to special designed dies. These systems lead to a more robust and reproducible forming process with improved product quality. This paper deals with: Cushion Systems, New Binder Designs for Draw Dies for Sheet Metal Automotive Parts, New Computer Program to Adjust the Blankholder Forces of Modern Hydraulic Cushion Systems of Single Action Presses and Pressure Measurement for Detecting the Pressure between the Blank and the Binders of Draw Dies for Sheet Metal Automotive Parts.

The EU SPARC Project (Secure Propelled Vehicle with Advanced Redundant Control) has developed a new system architecture that enables effective application of driver assisted systems in an X-by-wire powertrain. A major challenge in the conception of such a system is development of a reliable electrical energy supply. A simulation is the most important tool for enabling the fundamental aspects to work, as for example, a dimensioning of the powernet. This article explains our approach in this SPARC simulation. We provide suggestions through examples of how to find simulation solutions for powernet dimensioning, as well as for the conception and validation of energy management strategies.

During sheet metal forming processes, the friction conditions have a decisive influence on forming limits, the robustness of the production process and the quality of the parts produced, with significant forces required to overcome friction between the sheet and the tools. If lot-to-lot reproducibility is to be guaranteed, an appropriate method of characterizing the sheet surface topography is needed to monitor the sheet metal fabrication process. Newly developed optical measurement techniques and computer workstation technology are presented which enable the topography of sheet surfaces to be described in three dimensions.

Life cycle assessment offers a suitable methodology to evaluate environmental impacts over the total life cycle of the car. Indeed the effort for LCA studies of complex products like cars is very high. Design for environment tools can help to reduce the effort for environmental evaluation because of their direct integration in the designers workflow. As DFE is not standardized, it should be based on the reliable data from LCA. A connection between LCA and DFE offers the possibility to integrate environmental evaluation with tolerable effort directly in the design process while keeping the transparency and reliability of LCA.

In this paper the effects of pulsating blankholder forces in deep draw processes for sheet metal parts are discussed. Areas with and without tangential compressive stresses in the flanges, which are located between the binders, are discussed separately. Areas without tangential compressive stresses can be simulated by a special friction strip-draw test using a pulsating normal force ( representing the blankholder force ). Investigations using this equipment show that by pulsating blankholder forces it is possible to avoid galling and to reduce the friction force. Areas with tangential compressive stresses can be simulated by deep drawing axissymmetric cups using a pulsating blankholder force. Investigations with this equipment show that without increasing the danger of wrinkling the friction forces can be reduced by pulsating blankholder forces, when a certain frequency limit is reached.

Multi-dimensional modelling of the flow and combustion promises to become a useful optimisation tool for IC engine design. Currently, the total simulation time for an engine cycle is measured in weeks to months, thus preventing the routine use of CFD in the design process. Here, we shall describe three tools aimed at reducing the simulation time to less than a week. The rapid template-based mesher produces the computational mesh within 1-2 days. The parallel flow solver STAR-CD performs the flow simulation on a similar time-scale. The package is completed with COVISEMP, a parallel post-processor which allows real-time interaction with the data.

In the automotive industry, there is a continued need to improve the development process and handle the increasing complexity of the overall vehicle system. One major step in this process is a comprehensive and complementary approach to both simulation and testing. Knowledge of the overall dynamic vehicle behavior is becoming increasingly important for the development of new control concepts such as integrated vehicle dynamics control aiming to improve handling quality and ride comfort. However, with current well-established test systems, only separated and isolated aspects of vehicle dynamics can be evaluated. To address these challenges and further merge the link between simulation and testing, the Institute of Internal Combustion Engines and Automotive Engineering (IVK), University of Stuttgart is introducing a new Handling Roadway (HRW) Test System in cooperation with The Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines Stuttgart (FKFS) and MTS Systems Corporation.