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1 During the development of a new clutch disc damping system and after three months of hard work the engineering team got stuck with unsatisfactory system performance (rattle noise), despite the help of a computer simulation software. The only alternative seemed to be using a more expensive damping concept but, besides the fact that there wasn't much development time left, that option would increase part cost by unacceptable US$ 200, plus development cost. The team then decided to try Taguchi's Robust Engineering optimization approach for the first time. In just two weeks the authors got a 4.6 dB gain on the signal-to-noise ratio. That allowed us to keep the initially proposed system, thus avoiding the cost increase. Besides, the authors were able to keep the development schedule on track.

This work aims to summarize in a single form all legal requirements that dictates the minimum safety compliance required by government edicts to any wheel manufacture to have their products available for passenger or light truck vehicle in any country around the world in the year of 2016. It is not intention of this paper compare or discuss the different requirement among the countries but indicate to the manufactures of wheels what legal edicts they need to meet in case they are willing to go overseas to explore the wheel market of other country. Before start designing wheels for passenger or light truck application, any manufacture should be sure about what the government of the new market demands for wheels when installed on vehicle axis or just available as temporary spare. Another objective of this paper is to be a short reference for new automakers to know what to demand from their suppliers of wheels before starting business with them or shipping vehicles to any new market.

This paper will focus whining noise on rear axles applied in mid-size trucks. Vehicle integration changes during development affect directly the gear noise perception, in which it may be intensified. Also, gear material and heat treatment choices for the rear axle need to be done carefully, taking into consideration the integration changes and also the driver usage. A lessons learned collection over the diverse aspects of a rear axle whining noise will be the basis of this paper.

In the early 1990s, Brazilian automotive industries have testified a new scenario with a competitiveness increased due to the establishment of foreign companies, which forced them to follow new strategies to maintain its competitiveness in the market. Innovation and quality become priority, as well as new technologies and product cost optimization. More specifically, the focus on current automotive products cost reduction is nowadays one of the most important strategies to provide significant increase in profits and market share of companies. The purpose of this paper is to introduce case studies and the technical and economical benefits of product optimization process applied in current automotive components, where the requirements of quality maintenance, performance and cost reductions are emphasized.

This paper came from the latent needs of the Brazilian Market for products more robust and at the same time cheaper. With these needs in mind the product development team of General Motors do Brasil have developed together with Altair Engineering do Brasil a design methodology based on the topologic optimization technology. The objective of this paper was defined in a meeting of the technical teams of the two companies: Develop the application of the topologic optimization technology on design of structural components using actual GMB models. This methodology is described on this paper with some practical examples where it was applied. One the important news here presented it was considering the casting constrains that leave to an optimal design that can be produced. The results here presented were obtained using optimization and compared with the traditional approach here defined as try-error.

The existent competitiveness in the automobile industry has been taking their manufacturers to an incessant search for methods and processes that seek the production of vehicles with quality and accessible costs to their costumers. The Vehicle Development Process (VDP) became an essential element for the success of a vehicle in the market, because the companies found out that, when concentrating their efforts during the development phase, the opportunities for product improvement will be much less onerous when compared with the costs spent when the vehicle are already in production. On the other hand, those improvement opportunities are evidently more difficult of be pointed during VDP than when the vehicle is already in production. This article aims to evaluate how the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology can be applied to the vehicle development process in order to provide significant results in terms of quality improvement, cost optimization and reduction of development timing.

Although voice recognition is not essential for telematics application, it is certainly one of the most attractive features for the customer who buys it. The appealing is such that may determine the whole system success in the market and, therefore, deserves our attention. This paper discusses the voice recognition task and ways to improve it in the vehicle hostile environment. In order to create a robust system, artificial neural networks are being used in combination to the appropriate signal processing, which includes temporal alignment and spectral transformation for MFCCs features extraction. The problems related to in-vehicle application are described and feasible solutions are suggested. A proposed architecture is then designed considering all foreseen complications, taking advantage of sensors already available in other vehicle systems, ensuring the performance optimization at minimum cost increase.

Basic driveline configurations offered in mid-size trucks have a standard “open” differential. Open differentials allow smooth cornering, as the outside tire must spin faster on corners as it travels a larger arc, when compared to the inner tire. This system has a main problem when traction is lost, due to slippery roads, different friction coefficients between pavements or even when the axle is submitted to a twist ditch. All of the power goes to the wheel with the least traction and the pickup is stuck. In order to improve traction on these situations, limited slip differentials were developed. A limited-slip differential will prevent excessive power from being allocated just to one wheel, and thereby keeping both wheels in powered rotation. There are several solutions offered in the market, each one presenting different torque transfer capabilities.

Changes in the macro economic scenario of Brazil during the latest 10 years resulted on several changes in the auto industry market. One, which affected important requirements of the light duty trucks, regards the migration of customers from passenger car segments to light duty pickups. A considerable portion of these new pick-up customers expects an overall level of comfort, handling, noise and vibration similar to the levels found in passenger cars. One possible conclusion of this trend is that an optimized vehicle system integration is vital to prevent potential issues and to assure the achievement of customer satisfaction. Among several vehicle systems, the Drivetrain integration deserves the major attention. This paper shares lessons learned on the integration of the manual Transmission, external shifter, mountings, propeller shaft, rear axle and suspension with the rest of the vehicle.