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This paper proposes a rolling machine that forms fine corrugated section patterns for thin sheets. A prototype of the machine was made and the performance of the machine was tested. As compared with press forming, rolling has the advantages of the high forming limit, the low forming reaction force, the easy control of the thin sheet's curve and high productivity. We confirmed these four advantages by using finite element analyses and the prototype rolling machine. Stainless steel sheets and titanium sheets, which were one of the materials with a low forming limit, were used. Firstly, the rolling showed a 1.3-times higher forming limit than the press forming in the case that a fine corrugated section pattern was formed in a stainless steel sheet of 22-mm square sizes. Secondly, the forming reaction force of the rolling was about one-twentieth of the press forming without coining, and the experimental results agreed with the finite element simulation.

The application of tailored blanks to autobody parts has progressed because of its numerous advantages. The forming of tailored blanks has, however, a lot of technical problems. Among the problems, weld-line movement and formability deterioration are the most significant ones in case of deep drawing. The weld-line movement and formability change were examined experimentally as a function of weld-line location in square cup deep drawing. The weld-line movement of tailored blank consists of two sources. One is the geometrical reason, and the other is due to the hardening of weld bead. The formability of tailored blank is inferior to that of an original blank by the existence of hardened weld region. The mode of fracture changes from wall breakage to a fracture adjacent to punch radius when the weld-line was close to the punch corner.

The mixture formation by fuel spray impingement (OSKA system) was applied to a small direct-injection diesel engine in order to reduce the wall quenching- induced emissions, i.e., the emissions of THC and soluble organic fractions (SOF). Experiments were carried out using a single-cylinder engine, fitted with various piston cavity geometries, ran under a wide range of compression ratios and fuel injection specifications. The piston cavity was designed as a centrally located reentrant type. The combination of the high squish flow and the weak penetration of the OSKA spray was very effective in reducing harmful emissions. A short ignition delay, under the retarded fuel injection timing, was obtained because of the high compression ratio. The OSKA DI diesel engine showed reduced NOx, smoke, and THC emissions without deterioration of the fuel consumption compared to modern DI diesel engines used in automotive applications.

Recently, it has been expected that titanium alloy valves will be adopted at extremely high rate to motorcycle engines where higher engine performance is required than in automobiles. However, there were difficulties with respect to reliability required for motorcycle engines. The reason for this is that engine valves of motorcycle engines are not only smaller in stem diameter, but also used at a higher maximum engine speed than those of automobile engines. This study is about a development of titanium alloy engine valves that meet reliability requirements in motorcycle engines.

With society demanding automobiles that provide higher fuel efficiency, safety of occupants in collisions and that at the end of their service life can be recycled with low environmental impact, the steel industry is tackling the needs of the automobile industry by developing ever-higher performance steel materials and simulation technologies that can demonstrate the performance of steel materials at the development stage without the need for costly prototype testing. In this paper, weight reduction of automobile body in Japan will be discussed. The main items will be as follows: (1) Development of Automobile Steel Sheets, (2) Materials for Automobile Bodies, (3) Materials and Technologies (Tailored Blanks, Hydroforming and Locally Quenching) for Reducing the Weight of Panels and Reinforcing members, (4) Future Prospects.

Considerable amounts (400 ∼ 600 thousand tons) of waste vegetable oil in Japan are still flushed down the drain every year. Utilization of waste vegetable oil for diesel fuel leads to two advantages for environmental protection, to reduce CO2 emission from engines and to avoid water pollution of rivers. In this study, combustion characteristics of waste vegetable oil methyl ester (WME) are investigated in detail by not only engine test run but also observation of burning flames in a visual engine. As results indicate, WME shows rather better combustion state in the visual engine and lower smoke emission from a high-speed DI test engine than gas oil. Moreover, by emulsifying WME with water, further improvement of combustion and more than 18 % reduction of NOx emission is carried out.

A method of fatigue life prediction of spot welded joint under multi-axial loads has been developed by fatigue life estimation working groups in the committee on fatigue strength and structural reliability of JSAE. This method is based on the concept of nominal structural stress ( σ ns) proposed by Radaj and Rupp, and improved so that D value is not involved in stress calculation. The result of fatigue life estimation of actual vehicle with nominal structural stress which was calculated through newly developed method had very good correlation with the result of multi-axial loads fatigue test carried out with test piece including high strength steel.

This paper introduces a development of pedestrian protection analyzing technologies and its practical application to an actual automobile. The analyzing technologies have two types, an analyzing tool for initial design stage utilizing Microsoft Excel and a crash analyzing software MADYMO, and a large scale FEM (Finite Element Method) utilizing a crash analyzing software PAM-CRASH. These technologies were applied to an actual car development to study the efficient structure. In this paper, a development of a bumper structure with high leg protection performance is reported. The developed bumper was tested and evaluated on an actual vehicle and was proven to have high leg protection performance. The leg protection analyzing technology could estimate the leg injury of a actual vehicle test within 10% prediction error.

New 440MPa class high-strength steel, which had high r-value(1.6) and elongation(38%), was applied to outer-panel for the first time in the world. In this development FEM simulation was carried out to clarify the necessary steel properties, and the production conditions in strip mill were established. 10-kg weight reduction was realized by using this steel.

In this paper the fatigue life of welded steel sheet structures is predicted by using FE-Fatigue, which is one of fatigue analysis software tools on the market, and these predicted results are evaluated by reference to corresponding experimental results. Also, we try to predict these structures by using two fatigue life prediction theories established by the JSAE fatigue and reliability committee to compare prediction results. It was confirmed that spot welds fatigue life predictions agree qualitatively with corresponding experimental results and arc welds fatigue life predictions are in good agreement with corresponding experimental results in cases where the SN curve database is modified appropriately.

The main operations for the manufacturing of auto parts are the cutting of the flange and the stamping. In order to perform accurate fatigue calculation it is necessary to have the material properties for each point of the structure. Usually, only the fatigue curve obtained on the flat sheet with polished edges is used because it represents the basic metal behaviour. The real edge quality decreases the fatigue limit while the hardening induced by the stamping increases it. To take these effects into account allows a better fatigue calculation of the structural part.

In order to examine the compatibility of improvement of crashworthiness with weight saving of automobiles by using high strength steel, a combination analysis of Finite Element Method and Dynamic Mechanical Properties has been established. Material properties used in this analysis have been measured by “one bar method” high velocity tensile tests, which can examine the deformation behavior of materials at a bend crush speed range (∼55km/h). It was confirmed that the strength of steel measured by one bar method was raised remarkably after press and hydro forming of high strength steels. It was also confirmed by FEM analysis and load drop test that absorbed energy of bend crush was improved by pre-strain effect. Further, we proved that absorbed energy of bend crush was also improved by appropriate design of thickness and the ratio of bend span and plate length. These effects are applicable to respective high strength steels.

In order to quantitatively evaluate mechanical durability of metal substrates for catalytic converters under heat cycles, thermal stresses and strains were simulated by FEM elastic-plastic analysis. Flat and corrugated sheets constituting honeycomb structures were directly modeled by thick-shell elements without replacing the structures with equivalent solid elements. It was reported that an asymmetric joint structure with “Strengthened Outer Layer” could provide metal substrates with high mechanical durability against heat cycles and the results of analysis in this study could show their high durability. It is important for improvement of mechanical durability to control the location of initial cracks generation and the direction of their propagation.

The influence of tensile strength on fatigue strength and the effect of strengthening mechanism on fatigue notch factor were investigated into conventional mild steels, HSLA steels, DP steels and TRIP steels. The grade of studied steels was altered from 440MPa to 780MPa. Not only smooth fatigue specimens with side surface ground and smooth fatigue specimens with laser-cut side surface but also fatigue specimens with a pierced hole were prepared for each of steel sheets. Fatigue tests were conducted in an axial load method. These experiments made it clear that the fatigue limits of smooth specimen increase along the tensile strength approximately independent of strengthening mechanism but those of notched specimen do not necessarily increase along the tensile strength. Namely, fatigue limits of DP steels and TRIP steels with notch increase in proportion to tensile strength although those of HSLA steels with notch do not increase.

The low frequency noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics play a critical role in the design of vehicle Body-In-White (BIW) structures. Lower order modes influence the structural reliability of the vehicle as well as its ride and handling characteristics. Special consideration is given to ensure that they are spaced apart and not coincident with the frequencies of other vehicle subsystems (e.g. engine and chassis). The added stiffness required to improve the NVH characteristics comes at a cost: increased BIW mass, which affects vehicle dynamics, fuel economy, and point mobilities/structural inertances. This paper documents a procedure to balance BIW build cost, mass and structural performance through an integrated optimization process.

The newly developed sheet steel lightly coated with an organic composite is as follows. Zn-Ni alloy plated sheet steel with a coating weight of 30 g/m2 and average Ni concentration of 11.5 ∼12.0 % is chromated through electrolysis. The coating weight of chromate film is 50 ∼90 mg/m2 in Cr. Furthermore, emulsified olefin-acrylic acid copolymer resin mixed with colloidal silica of particle size 7 ∼8 nm applied to a thickness of 1.0 ∼1.8 μm. Olefin-acrylic acid copolymer resin and colloidal silica are mixed at the rate of 100 and 30 (parts by weight). It maintains excellent corrosion resistance even after forming, C-ED paint corrosion resistance and paint adhesion. Furthermore, it has excellent perforation resistance. The product has excellent weldability and is well suited to continuous forming, too.

Since the intake and exhaust valve timings that provide the best fuel economy, idle stability, or highest power change according to the engine operating zone, a variable valve timing system is very beneficial. Also, roller followers, which reduce mechanical friction loss of a valve train mainly at low engine speed, are commonly used to improve fuel economy in urban driving conditions. This paper presents a newly developed 4-valve variable-valve-timing mechanism with roller followers. Different intake- and exhaust-valve timings and lifts are selected independently, depending upon whether engine speed is low or high. Durability tests of running at maximum engine speed and switching between low- and high-speed cams were conducted and good test results were obtained.

As a demand for vehicles of higher functionality grows, automakers and material suppliers are devoting increasing efforts to develop technologies for greater safety, lighter weight, higher corrosion resistance, and enhanced quietness. The resin-sandwiched vibration damping steel sheet (VDSS), developed as a highly functional material for reducing vehicle vibration and noise, has been used for oil pans1) and compartment partitions2). First applied for a structural dash panel of the new Mazda 929, a Zn-Ni electroplated VDSS which allows direct electric welding has contributed to greater weight reduction as well as improved quietness.

Weight reduction of automobiles is one of the most highlighted subjects in automobile industry from the energy saving and clean environment points of view. A typical approach for the purpose is to use high strength steel sheets as well as optimizing designs and using low density materials. It is not, however, easy to apply high strength steel sheets to automotive panels because of their strict requirement for the shape-fixability although a high dent resistance is also required. Besides the use of bake hardening steels, two different high strength steel sheets, which are a continuously annealed extra-low carbon titanium-added IF steel and a low carbon TRIP steel which contains about six volume% of austenite, were assessed for the application to automotive panels in combination with a tension-controled press-forming technique and showed as good shape-fixability as a conventional box-annealed aluminum-killed DDQ steel sheet when high blank-holding-forces were applied.

This paper details the air-fuel mixing process in a gasoline direct injection (DI) engine. Laser measurement techniques such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) were employed on the optical engine with a transparent cylinder to analyze the in-cylinder flow and fuel vapor concentration. In addition, firing tests were conducted using an actual engine. Test results showed that the multi-stage injection is effective for air-fuel mixing and improvement of combustion stability.