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Countless articles and publications3,4,5 have documented and proven the efficacy, benefits and value of operating within a lean system. Furthermore, there exists common agreement amongst leading organizations successfully implementing a lean system that in order to do so it must take into consideration the entire enterprise, that is, from supplier to customer and everything in between6. One of the core issues this paper addresses is when the optimal time is to train and educate the people who currently have, or will have, influence over the ‘enterprise’.

Software programs in non-application areas such as Board Support Packages, Hardware Abstraction Layers, signal processing and data acquisition are more or less very standard and common across many applications. These form a major part of the “platform” software, which changes very little. However, it is seen that many a time, efforts are spent resolving issues in the hardware dependent layers rather than concentrating on the application at hand, despite the fact that the software controlling the hardware has been developed many times. There are many reasons why this section of the software is rewritten many times over: different coding standards, different software architecture and layering concepts, the dreadful cut-and-paste methods, and so on. Introduction of a tool-based code configurator and generator eliminates access to the code and focuses on configuring a pre-written set of SW procedures. Advantages: Standardization, reuse and high levels of productivity.

IN this paper the authors present some experimental results obtained by using the analysis outlined by Prof. James J. Guest before the Institution of Automobile Engineers, in 1926. To make the experimental work more understandable, they present the essential points of Professor Guest's analysis. Professor Guest begins his analysis of the movements of a car body with the simplest set of conditions and presents a graphical as well as an algebraic solution. He then includes one additional factor after another in his analysis until the principal factors in car suspension are included. After all factors are considered, the essential structure of the simple analysis is retained. The authors' efforts at the experimental determination of the moment of inertia of passenger cars were started in January, 1932, on Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney's “tear-drop” design with which he visited leading American manufacturers.

High performance lubricant additive systems have been developed to formulate SAE 5W-30 passenger car engine oils which meet current and anticipated requirements of the North American original equipment manufacturers. The trend in North America is to recommend SAE 5W-30 oils that not only meet the API SF requirements for gasoline engines (“first-generation” oils), but also meet the stringent API CC requirement for light duty diesel engines (“second-generation” oils). Furthermore, the engine builders have issued “world specifications” for motor oils which incorporate additional “second-generation” SAE 5W-30 characteristics, such as enhanced API SF limits, improved fuel efficiency, an increased margin of bearing protection, and lower finished-oil phosphorus levels. The additive systems described herein exceed API SF and CC requirements as well as “second-generation” performance hurdles.

This paper presents, chemistry, test data and processing procedures on a non toxic and environmentally friendly chrome-free conversion coating alternative with the same level of adhesion and secondary corrosion resistance as that found in chrome containing conversion coating systems. Test data from military and independent sources will be presented on secondary coating adhesion, electrical conductivity, filiform and neutral salt-spray corrosion resistance as compared to chromate based systems .on magnesium, aluminum and zinc and their respective alloys. The European “RoSH” initiative will not allow for the presence of any hexavalent chromium on imported electrical components as of July first of 2006. Trivalent chromium based systems generate hexavalent chromium due to the oxidation of the trivalent chromium and as such will not be allowed.

The results of several anti-knock studies are discussed in this paper. Road anti-knock performance for 1000 fuel blends covering the years 1940 to 1957 have been investigated. The laboratory Research octane numbers of these fuels covered the range from 80 to 105. The fuels were evaluated in 46 cars representing a cross-section of the automotive products for these years. The objective of these investigations was to determine the practical application of the laboratory to road octane rating relationships, and the effect of vehicles, and operating conditions on these relationships. The results show that there is a valid correlation between laboratory and road octane ratings. The relative importance of Research and Motor octane ratings on road performance is influenced by make of car, engine speed, throttle position, and distributor advance characteristics. It also indicated that aromatics improve, whereas olefins reduce high speed Modified Borderline ratings.

Considering that the opening of the national market varies at the mercy of the economy and the government, Mercedes-Benz do Brasil launched a program to support the local suppliers. Within this program, one may enhance the tool IQTC (Commercial and Technical Qualitative Index). One deals with an index that will enable the supplier to exactly know in which scores he is “weak”, where he is strong and where he has to improve. The transparency regarding the information has to be complete. The general composition of the index will be presented with its criteria and requisites in which the various areas of Mercedes-Benz participate in, with additional details for the IQDP (Quality Index in Product Development), that is the subindex prepared by the Development area. Some practical results involving the evaluation of suppliers will also be shown, whose results, however, will not be nominally quoted.

In the work presented to SAE in 1999: IQTC: a Practical and Unified Index to Evaluate the Continuous Improvement of Suppliers, we showed that the Development Area is one of the chapters inserted into the evaluation process of suppliers and answers for an evaluation called IQDP (Quality Index in Product Development). The present work objective is to show the difficulties found in the implementation, solutions and improvements that are being used to outline a better supplier evaluation. Such a control within a universe of 350 suppliers (directly connected to production) being evaluated by 400 persons, in a natural process, is not an easy task. Collecting information about the difficulties faced to evaluate a supplier and the supplier claims to obtain an answer in reply to the attributed scores, took us to the search of the adequate computerized technology that would allow us to group the interests of work methods that would comply with the diverse demands involved.

Over the last ten years there has been a steady growth in the market share of light-duty diesel engines, especially in Europe. At the same time, a general trend in petrol engine development has been seen, in which normal aspirated engines are being replaced by downsized turbocharged engines. Therefore, NVH engineers have to deal with new challenges. Turbochargers produce an aerodynamic noise in the frequency range above 1000Hz, which might influence the exterior and interior noise level. As a result, the additional requirement for acoustical components to reduce this flow noise is going to pose an increasing challenge for air intake system suppliers. This paper describes a new design of well-known wide band silencer first mentioned by A. Selamet, N.S.Dickey and J.M.Novak [1,2]. The silencer works according to the interference principle. The sound is guided into two or more parallel pipes of different lengths.

The HD Radio™ system is a key element in the future convergence of technologies that are reinventing automobile Infotainment and Telematics. HD Radio Advanced Services data transport provides a flexible and addressable digital pipe to the vehicle. Traditionally, local AM/FM radio stations have been the primary source of mobile entertainment and information in the United States. And with the radio industry's conversion to digital broadcasting through the deployment of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-approved HD Radio system, terrestrial radio is now a superior method to deliver new and innovative content for local, regional and national telematics services.

The paper focuses and develops issues raised by the SAE paper ‘THE FUTURE OF VEHICLE ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON SYSTEM DESIGN’ [1] and describes the realisation of a vehicle with a 12 V architecture of flexible configuration and a power management function. The paper describes the methodology, reasoning and mission behind the creation of the vehicle, developed after collaborative exercises in Europe and the USA, and resulting in a joint programme involving a major vehicle manufacturer and a European system supplier. The electrical system is becoming the focus of activity world-wide due to rapid changes in vehicle requirements, in the areas of safety, environmental and functional demands. There are opportunities for:- (a) Improved starting (b) Integrated management of power generation and demand. (c) Higher system integrity (d) Higher efficiency (e) Improvement of the vehicle electrical environment, giving benefits in component cost.

The manner in which the lower deck cargo compartments of standard-body airplanes are designed, equipped, and serviced has not changed appreciably over the past 50 years. A number of factors now at work within the air transportation industry are causing carriers and airplane manufacturers to explore alternative approaches to these tasks. This paper reviews these factors, presents a new approach to lower deck cargo handling systems design, and describes how this approach can be applied to standard-body airplanes.

A new truck type street sweeper has been developed which incorporates some of the sweeping advantages of a three wheeled sweeper (tricycle steer) and the transport advantages of a legal highway truck. It offers major productivity improvements through better operator environment and decrease of nonsweeping time in the operational cycle. It is possible for a small “short line” special purpose vehicle manufacturer to develop, test, and produce such a vehicle and meet Federal regulatory requirements with limited “In house” design and testing facilities. Here this was accomplished through judicious augmentation by outside specialized design and testing organizations.

With the advent of low evaporative emission requirements there has been the rapid adoption of multilayer extrusion technology into the production of Fuel and Vapour tubing used on Fuel systems on automobiles. Multilayer extrusion technology enables a manufacturer of Fuel and Vapour tubing to simultaneously co-extrude dissimilar thermoplastic materials in tubular form. This allows the manufacturer to combine expensive and brittle high performance evaporative emission ‘barrier’ polymers with lower cost engineering polymers. However, it is a well-known characteristic of these multilayer tube constructions that the joints between them and connector ‘barbs’ have lower joint integrity. Joint integrity is most often quantified by ‘Pull-off’ and leakage tests. Recent developments in LEV-II requirements for 2004 and beyond indicate that joint integrity will become a focus area for study and improvement.

This paper describes a vehicle-level simulation model for climate control and powertrain cooling developed and currently utilized at GM. The tool was developed in response to GM's need to speed vehicle development for HVAC and powertrain cooling to meet world-class program execution timing (18 to 24 month vehicle development cycles). At the same time the simulation tool had to complement GM's strategy to move additional engineering responsibility to its HVAC suppliers. This simulation tool called “e-Thermal” was quickly developed and currently is in widespread (global) use across GM. This paper describes GM's objectives and requirements for developing e-Thermal. The structure of the tool and the capabilities of the simulation tool modules (refrigeration, front end airflow, passenger compartment, engine, transmission, Interior air handling …) is introduced. Model data requirements and GM's strategy for acquiring component data are also described.

Zinc-coatings with a substantial Magnesium content have been in use for over 30 years by now. Unlike the well-established Zn-Al-Mg coatings originating from Japan which have significant higher alloying contents applied mainly for building applications, this Zinc Magnesium Aluminum coating (ZM) is also specifically designed to meet the requirements of car manufacturers. The ZM coating introduced by voestalpine, corrender, is in the upper range of ZM-alloying compositions, which was set by VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry) and SAE to be within 1.0 to 2.0 wt. % Mg and 1.0 to 3.0 wt. % Al. The properties of these “European” Zinc-Magnesium coatings are well comparable within this range. Compared to GI and GA ZM coatings exhibit significant advantages in the press shops with its excellent formability and reduced galling and powdering respectively which is a significant advantage for the forming of outer panels.

The critical component for maintaining uniform zinc phosphate coatings on aluminum is fluoride. The control of free fluoride is critical to the operation of the process, because aluminum is dissolved in a zinc phosphate bath as a step in the coating reaction. If the dissolved aluminum is not removed from the bath, it will inhibit the formation of coatings on all metals being treated. This paper presents the characteristics and composition of zinc phosphate coatings on aluminum and steel, and lists some practical considerations of the transition from steel to aluminum components. Some possible problem areas discussed are: galvanic corrosion, underpaint quality, surface finish, electro-painting, and new paint surfaces.

Press-hardening steels get more and more popular for body in white applications as an approach to meet the demands of passenger safety and CO2 reduction. Unlike the larger part of the structure that is typically zinc coated, the majority of the PHS parts is either uncoated or aluminum silicon coated. This paper shall give an overview of press-hardening steels with zinc coatings with detailed results for corrosion resistance, weldability and mechanical properties for strength levels of 490 to 1800 MPa. Furthermore as for zinc coated material maintaining a robust press-hardening process is of even higher importance than for uncoated or AlSi coated material. A range of different processes including indirect and direct process are shown in detail. Especially the topic of micro-cracks, mechanisms and avoidance of micro-cracks in the direct process will be discussed. Results from industrial and semi industrial production are shown.