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Plastics (polymers) are nowadays clearly a material of choice in all application sectors including in Automobile sector. Automotive manufacturer have relived on new technology for vehicular accessories which are all made-up of different polymers like Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), Poly Carbonates, Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA), Acrylic, glass, resin etc. Although these components offer an impressive range of attractive properties, the effect of climatic conditions on the durability and performance of these materials is not fully understood. The durability, performance and rate of deterioration of these products are all significantly influenced by both the material composition, as well as the climatic conditions to which they are exposed. The degradation/ variation of the mechanical properties of the specimen treated at different environmental/ atmospheric conditions are a primary concern when recommending such a composite for particular use.

Accurate quantification of residual stresses is critical to predict expected fatigue life of the component. Quantification of residual stresses by X ray diffraction method offers substantial accuracy in results as compared to other methods of stress measurements. Depending on component processing and geometry, various stress measurement techniques are used to analyze stress patterns induced by these processing. This paper describes some of the stress measurement techniques by results obtained on two compressor valve (reed) samples which are undergone different processing. First reed sample is analyzed after blanking operation which is expected to give low compressive or tensile stresses whereas second reed sample is analyzed after tumbling operation which is done to get high compressive stresses.

The effect of different cold- rolling and cryo-rolling routes on the strength and ductility of Al-6061 alloy was thoroughly investigated. Rolling decreased the grain size and increased the strength according to the Hall-Petch relationship. However subjecting the samples to ageing at different temperatures and for different time period increased the strength and improved the ductility. The ductility was improved due to the rearrangement and even decrease in dislocation density due to recovery and recrystallization during ageing while the strength was maintained due to ageing. Evolution of microstructure was investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy. Preliminary hardness measurements coupled with tensile tests indicate the improvement of both yield strength and ductility. The disparity in ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and the elongation to failure with different ageing temperatures and for different time period is determined and discussed.

Light weighting is significant in for automotive industry as it helps in less fuel consumption and to achieve better performance. Aluminium is a candidate material for light weighting. To design a component made of aluminium material, it is necessary to understand the fatigue performance of the material. In this paper, a study is carried out to understand the fatigue performance of aluminium 6xxx series alloys at an early stage of design without carrying out comprehensive fatigue testing. Coffin Manson Parameters are used to predict fatigue life. This research focusses on determining the gaps in existing models for aluminium alloys by carrying out comprehensive review of various models developed for 6xxx series which uses monotonic tensile data. Two models are developed and the predicted fatigue properties for this class of material are further compared with experimental fatigue, monotonic data and literature.

Dual Phase (DP) steels with their high energy absorbing capacity are fast emerging as materials for automotive body applications with improved crashworthiness. The unique combination of high strength and good ductility associated with the DP steels originates from its specially developed microstructure that consists of martensitic islands in ferritic matrix. The high strength and good ductility are expected to give very good resistance to fatigue crack generation and propagation respectively. This paper discusses the fatigue properties determined for a DP steel grade viz. DP 800. The strain controlled fatigue tests were carried out on the un-notched specimens prepared from 1.2 mm sheets to generate E-N curves. The force controlled axial fatigue tests were carried out on two types of specimens prepared from 1.2 mm sheets to generate S-N curves for two Stress Concentration Factors (SCF) viz. 2.5 and 4.4.

In a developing country like India, Two-wheelers dominate the automotive market with around 80% market shares. In Indian city traffic conditions, driving a two wheeler is a tiresome job. Manual transmission makes this task even further uncomfortable. So an automatic transmission is a better solution. A new automatic transmission system is developed which can reduce fatigue of drivers. Steps of ARIZ (Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving) were followed. Ideas or concepts for the design were proposed from various fields and were compared for various parameters like size, weight, complexity, manufacturability, feasibility, efficiency and cost. They were also compared with the existing transmission systems. Based upon the results of the comparison, 5 designs were selected and they were analyzed thoroughly. Finally one design was selected.