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For making metal touch feeling and lighting simultaneously, selective electroplating is widely applied in button, panel and etc. in interior/exterior parts of automotive. In this paper, new selective electroplating with printing are suggested as an alternative manufacturing process of two shot molding, PC (Polycarbonate) and ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene). Manufacturing process of selective electroplating with printing is as follows: For preventing to plate metal layer in area of letter or symbol, masking ink is printed on parts, button, panel, etc., with electroplatable PC+ABS. After conventional electroplating process, the part has electroplated metal layer except for the printed area. It had been studied the composition of ink and PC+ABS for obtaining skip plating and light transmittance on printed area.

The power sliding door system(PSD) is being equipped in the MPV(Multi-Purpose Vehicle/minivans) vehicle for convenience in the door operation. This study will focus on package space optimization for interior design and overall vehicle packaging for the vehicles equipped with PSD. To optimize the package, investigation for PSD's structure need to be done and the examples of other vehicle maker will be investigated and compared. The study that considers performance and package requirements resulted in a unique PSD design. And finally, this study will show the result vehicle in which the optimized mechanism is applied.

Conventional combustion models are suitable for predicting flame propagation for a wrinkled flamelet configuration. But they cannot predict the burned gas composition. This causes the overestimation of burned gas temperature and pressure. A modified method of combustion simulation was established to calculate the chemical composition and to investigate their ultimate fate in the burned gas region. In this work, the secondary products of combustion process, like CO and H2, were considered as well as the primary products like CO2 and H2O. A 3-dimensional CFD program was used to simulate the turbulent combustion and a zero dimensional equilibrium code was used to predict the chemical composition of burned gas. With this simple connection, more reasonable temperature and pressure approaching the real phenomena were predicted without additional time costs.

3D digital human modeling (DHM) tools for vehicle packaging facilitate ergonomic design and evaluation based on anthropometry, comfort, and force analysis. It is now possible to quickly predict postures and positions for drivers with selected anthropometry based on ergonomics principles. Despite their powerful visual representation technology for human movements and postures, these tools are still questioned with regard to the validity of the output they provide, especially when predictions are made for different populations. Driving postures and positions of two populations (i.e. North Americans and Koreans) were measured in actual and mock-up SUVs to investigate postural differences and evaluate the results provided by a DHM tool. No difference in driving postures was found between different stature groups within the same population. Between the two populations, however, preferred angles differed for three joints (i.e., ankle, thigh, and hip).

A new noble material for automotive bumper fascia has been developed by compounding of ethylene-propylene block copolymers with ethylene-α-olefin copolymers and some additives. Also mineral fillers are added, if necessary. This material is suitable for injection molding of large parts including automotive bumper fascia. By using selected rubbers which have proper melt viscosity, molecular weight, and co-monomer content, and adding modified polymer containing polar group, it has enhanced processibility and paintability maintaining general properties such as tensile strength, impact strength at low temperature, and thermal and UV stability. The remarkable characteristics of this material is good processibility compared to the conventional TPOs. This material has especially high melt flow index(20∼30g/10min at 230°C) and stable flow behavior at the processing conditions.

During the vehicle lifecycle, customers are able to directly perceive the outer panel stiffness of vehicles in various environmental conditions. The outer panel stiffness is an important factor for customers to perceive the robustness of the vehicle. In the real test of outer panel stiffness after prototype production, evaluators manually press the outer panel in advance to identify vulnerable areas to be tested and evaluate the performance only in those area. However, when developing the outer panel stiffness performance using FEA (Finite Element Analysis) before releasing the drawing, it is not possible to filter out these areas, so the entire outer panel must be evaluated. This requires a significant amount of computing resources and manpower. In this study, an approach utilizing artificial intelligence was proposed to streamline the outer panel stiffness analysis and improve development reliability.

In order to cope with new exhaust emission regulations, automotive industry is interested in research and development of HSDI (High Speed Direct Injection) diesel engines with common rail systems. Since HSDI diesel engine operates under highly loaded condition due to increased power output, cylinder head of HSDI diesel engine is susceptible to high cycle fatigue cracks. In this study, FE analysis was used to find the mechanism of high cycle fatigue crack in the HSDI diesel cylinder head. In order to improve the durability of HSDI diesel cylinder head, the modifications of cylinder head and head bolt pre-load were investigated. Experiments were performed to prove the existence of residual stress created during the heat treatment of cylinder head. The results of experiments showed that residual stress can affect the durability of HSDI diesel cylinder head.

The tube hydroforming technology (THF) has been extensively used as auto-body structural members such as engine cradle, frame rail etc. in order to meet the urgent need of vehicle weight and cost reduction as well as high quality. In this paper we experimentally investigate the mechanical properties for hydroformed tubes with various bulging strains under the plane strain mode. Axial compression tests for hydroformed tubes are performed to investigate the collapse load and collapse absorption capacity through the collapse load-displacement curves. Moreover the collapse absorption capacities are compared and discussed between as-received, hydroformed, and press formed tubes. Results demonstrate that the hydroformed tubes show higher collapse absorption capability in comparison with the as-received tube and the press formed tube, because of its high yield strength due to strain hardening.

A new heat-resistant cast iron alloy has been developed for the exhaust manifolds of new passenger-car diesel engines. This development occurred because operating demands on exhaust manifolds have increased significantly over the past decade. These demands are due to higher exhaust gas temperatures resulting from tighter emission requirements, improved fuel efficiencies, and designs for higher specific engine power. These factors have led to much higher elevated temperature strength and oxidation resistance requirements on exhaust manifold alloys. Additionally, thermal fatigue that occurs directly as a result of thermal expansions and mechanical constraint has become an increasingly important issue. The research detailed in this paper focused on the optimization of the chemical composition of a Si-Mo ductile iron to improve the mechanical and physical properties for use in an engine exhaust manifold.

This paper summarizes the development of a wireless message from infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) for safety applications based on Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) under a cooperative agreement between the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partners LLC (CAMP) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). During the development of the Curve Speed Warning (CSW) and Reduced Speed Zone Warning with Lane Closure (RSZW/LC) safety applications [1], the Basic Information Message (BIM) was developed to wirelessly transmit infrastructure-centric information. The Traveler Information Message (TIM) structure, as described in the SAE J2735, provides a mechanism for the infrastructure to issue and display in-vehicle signage of various types of advisory and road sign information. This approach, though effective in communicating traffic advisories, is limited by the type of information that can be broadcast from infrastructures.

In order to reduce the cost and weight of the soft-foamed instrument-panel (IP), we developed the new IP which is made by the 2 kinds of injection methods. One is the compression-injection with back-foamed foil inserted, and the other is two-shot injection with the passenger-side airbag (PAB) door. We named it ‘IMX-IP’ which means that all components (‘X’) of the IP with different resins are made In a Mold. The development procedure of this technology was introduced (1) Design of the new injection mold through TRIZ application, (2) Optimization of the injection conditions and back foamed-foil for minimizing the foam loss and thickness deviation, (3) Development of CAE method for two-shot injection compression, (4) Reliability performance test and application to the mass production. The reduction of the processes through the two-shot molding with back foamed-foil inserted made it possible to enhance soft feeling on IP and reduce the cost and weight simultaneously.

A new technique of heat treatment is developed for the bearings of automotive transmission and chassis to maximize their service life under contaminated and severe environments. This study demonstrates an improvement of the microstructure of bearing steels by applying special heat treatments. The microstructure is developed by optimizing various heat treating parameters (temperature, cycle time and gas atmosphere, etc.) as well as by modifying the quenching processes (double quenching and press quenching). We obtained a desirable microstructure of dense and fine martensite with optimum levels of retained austenite and compressive residual stress on the subsurface. The size and distribution of carbides and grains are found to be very fine and homogeneous. The endurance test results show that the specimens with new treatment have an excellent fatigue life compared with the conventional bearing samples.

A module based IPS (Intelligent Power Switch) evaluation system is proposed in this paper. As the IPS is gradually replacing the conventional relay and fuses, the stability and reliability of power system depends more on these IPS. The proposed IPS evaluation system outperforms the conventional manual evaluation in terms of speed and efficiency. This paper will introduce the structure of hardware and software of the IPS evaluation system. The system is placed between the module and cable connector to evaluate the module in an operating car without changing the cables. The control and signal processing is carried out by personal computer which is connected to the evaluation system by USB (Universal Serial Bus). The load resistance can be switch from actual load to arbitrary value using relay circuitry and DC electric load controlled by GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus). CAN (Controller Area Network) circuits were added to control the IPS mounted inside the module.

This study provides a tire puncture sealant including NR latex and acrylic emersion, which has a reduced viscosity at -40°C, and is also excellent storage stability at -40°C to 70°C, initial sealing performance. Also, this study provides device for sealing inflatable objects. 'One- Piece Tire Repair Kit' can reduce weight and operation steps.

The weight reduction of the car suspension parts has a direct influence on the ride and handling. However, the application of nonferrous metal materials, such as aluminum and magnesium, which results in a lighter weight of the suspension can lead to an increase in manufacturing costs compared to cast iron. In this study, vertical type high-pressure die casting using by electro-magnetic stirring (EMS) with A356 alloy in the sleeve was used to control the fine microstructure. Process optimization and part development, as well as unit product and automotive assessment were carried out for electro-magnetic stirring methods. Without making the slurry, the mechanical properties were obtained through optimization of process variables UTS 320MPa, YS 239MPa, EL 13.3%. It also succeeded in mass production with minimum cost increase of aluminum suspension components.

The thermoplastic automotive pulley has been developed and will be commercialized to high volume production that achieves cost saving and weight reduction over other automotive pulleys in the metal and thermosetting resin by Hyundai Motor Company. Design feature incorporated in this automotive pulley allow it to be manufactured and assembled onto the water pump more efficiently in consequence of design integration with the water pump and power steering pulley. However, the harsh environment and dynamic loads that the thermoplastic pulley has to withstand required extensive CAE analysis and testing of the molded parts and the standard glass reinforced PA was selected for the application to maximize cost savings. The key aspects of the plastic automotive pulley as well as its advantage are presented.

The combustion characteristics of a HSDI diesel engine were analyzed numerically using a reduced chemical kinetics. The reaction mechanism consisting of 26 steps and 17 species including the Zel'dovich NOx mechanism for the higher hydrocarbon fuel was implemented in the KIVA-3V. The characteristic time scale model was adopted to account for the effects of turbulent mixing on the reaction rates. The soot formation and oxidation processes are represented by Hiroyasu's model and NSC's model. The validation cases include the homogenous fuel/air mixture and the spray combustion in a constant volume chamber. After the validation, the present approach was applied to the analysis of the spray combustion processes in a HSDI diesel engine. The present approach reasonably well predicts the ignition delay, combustion processes, and emission characteristics in the high-pressure turbulent spray flame-field encountered in the practical HSDI diesel engines.

This study has been conducted to analyze microbial diversity and its community by using a method of NGS(Next generation sequencing) technique that is not rely on cultivation for microbial community in an core evaporator causing odor of car air conditioner. The NGS without any cultivation method of cultivation, has been developed recently and widely. This method is able to research a microorganism that has not been cultivated. Differently with others, it can get a result that is closer to fact, also can acquire more base sequence with larger volume in relatively shorter time. According to bacteria population analysis of 23 samples, It can be known limited number of bacteria can inhabit in Evaporator core, due to small exposure between bacteria and evaporate, as well as its environmental characteristics. With the population analysis, only certain group of it is forming biofilm in proportion.

To achieve a mass goal and minimize the bell mouthing phenomenon of Passenger Air Bag Housing which takes place when the air bag is in explosive action and detrimental to the safety of passenger side because excessive canister bell mouthing may distort and crash the top surface of instrument panel, a study on the replacing process of a PAB housing to a different material and process was performed. The explosive action of current steel PAB housing was firstly analized to evaluate the reaction forces transferred through the PAB and find out the adaptable material for replacing process. Due to the properties among the die casting alloys, the AM60B alloy was chosen for our new material for PAB housing. Then, stress analysis by the finite element method was performed for a design modification of magnesium one piece housing.

The high speed continuous braking distance assessment is the worst condition for thermal fades. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between fade characteristic and friction materials & brake fluid amount for improving braking distance. So, we used the dynamometer to measure the friction coefficient, braking distance and required brake fluid amount. Through the measurements, the research was carried out as follows. First of all, we studied the influence of friction coefficient about different shapes (chamfer shape, area of the friction material, number of slots) on the same friction material. Secondly, we knew the effects of braking distance by the shape of the friction material. Through these two studies, the shape of the friction material favorable to the fade characteristics was derived. Finally, we measured the amount of required brake fluid in caliper after 10 consecutive braking cycles through Dynamometer.