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This paper demonstrates the possibilities of using Automotive waste plastic material from “end of life” vehicles (ELVs), in the Footwear Industry to manufacture shoe components. The study establishes the sustainability of the flow of ELVs, from the European Car Parc and identifies and estimates the quantity of plastic materials potentially available for recycling from ELVs. Four potential materials, Acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene (ABS), Polypropylene (PP), Polypropylene/ethylene/propylene/diene (PP/EPDM) and Polyamide (PA), were identified and three materials (PP, PP/EPDM and ABS) were reprocessed from ELV components and evaluated by the Footwear Industry. As a result, ABS was recommended as an economically, suitable replacement for HIPS, the current material used for manufacturing shoe heel components.

The material known as 75ST is a new high strength aluminum alloy that can be used in certain aircraft structural applications to effect a saving in weight or an increase in strength or both over designs using other alloys. However, the structural engineer should be well acquainted with the advantages and limitations of this material before utilizing it in design.

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’.

The intersection of changing lifestyles and evolving transportation needs finds smart USA well positioned for launch in 2008 during one of the most competitive periods in U.S. automotive history. In a zero sum market with new global entrants competing for single points of share, where quality levels have been redefined and fractions of points separate the best from the challengers, lifestyle awareness, innovation and product positioning become the differentiators. Simply adding features has left some with hefty investments and confused consumers. Bigger is not always better. More is not always desirable. The real opportunity for new entrants to the US market may be defined within niche markets where changing lifestyles allow for the emergence of new segments. Today, smart USA has surfaced as a clear example of right product, right place, right time.

As part of an overall effort to support the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) national program to increase seat belt usage, General Motors instituted an employe seat belt use incentive program at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. This program was responsible for raising seat belt use at the Tech Center from 36% to 70% during its 5 1/2 month duration. The program was patterned, in part, after research work done by professor E. Scott Geller of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University under a grant from the General Motors Research Laboratories and a program conducted by Berg Electronics (a DuPont subsidiary). The intent of the program was to provide sufficient positive incentive to employes to buckle up for an extended period of time, thereby establishing a seat belt use habit that will continue after the incentives are no longer offered.

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.

A sense of “personal integrity” blocks pilot use of new information about how he thinks. Research on human performance under stress done over the past fifty years indicates increased rigidity and regression to earlier learned behavior in high stress, and in low Stress a shift in attention to any domestic situation or on the job controversy which is of higher stress than that of the job at hand, all without the pilot's knowledge. Informal surveys of commercial pilot training and commercial pilot attitudes towards these studies indicate that the study findings directly confront learned cultural responses. Pilot and trainer reactions prevent the information from being adequately investigated or formally taught. The findings are not written into training manuals and pilots who are informally given the information do not have adequate access to the knowledge when it is needed.

Research information on solid lubricants has been compiled for consideration in the possible use of such materials in aircraft electrical equipment. Solid lubricants are capable of lubricating at the maximum temperatures (600° F) for aircraft electrical equipment. Many solids that adhere well to metals may be useful lubricants; those with layer-lattice structure usually give low friction. Solid lubricants are most commonly used as bonded films but the use of fluid carriers and surface reaction products have considerable merit.

Vehicle dynamics is a discipline of mechanical engineering that benefited of significant improvements thanks to the progress of computational engineering. Vehicle dynamics engineers are using CAE for the development of a vehicle with MBS and FEA. The concurrent use of these two technologies is a standard in the automotive industry. However the current simulation process is not fully efficient because local geometrical and material nonlinearities are not accurately modeled in classical MBS software. This paper introduces a methodology for vehicle dynamics simulation integrating MBS capabilities in one single nonlinear FEA environment enabling an accurate modeling of nonlinearity in vehicles.

Engineers have long been restricted in designing and manufacturing one piece, hollow composite components with complex internal geometry. Complex core pulls in the plastic tool, major concessions made in the actual component design or components joined from several pieces were the early means of producing such components. Progressive thinking led to the use of matrix materials such as sand, salt and wax, which provided a measure of flexibility in allowing designed-in undercut areas. These materials, however, lacked the capability to meet the required demands of dimensional accuracy and internal surface, as well as proving themselves unsuitable for high volume production. The concerns for repetitive dimensional accuracy, quality internal surface and high volume production capability has now been satisfied with the use of low melting temperature metal alloys.

MONOGAL is a coated steel developped to improve the corrosion resistance of exposed automotive body applications. Its process os based on the brittleness of the η zinc coating in a range of temperatures below the melting point of the zinc. MONOGAL is produced on a hot dip galvanizing line; at the exit of the pot the free zinc is brushed off the light side of the differentially coated sheet. Side 1 of MONOGAL presents a very thin and continuous layer of iron-zinc diffusion alloy with no free zinc. Side 2 is a standard G90 or G60 zinc coating. The iron-zinc alloy layer has excellent anti-galling properties which improve the formability of MONOGAL over two side hot dip galvanized steel with the same r value. MONOGAL also shows good weldability, paintability and corrosion resistance.

Issues relating to the reduction of CO₂ emissions and energy consumption are currently more important than ever before. In the construction engineering and automotive sectors research and development efforts are focused closely on efficient buildings and automobiles. The designated target is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy demand. However, almost all approaches focus solely on either "buildings" or "mobility." By considering both aspects as a single holistic system, further energy saving potential arises due to synergetic effects. The goal of current research projects relating to Smart Homes and Vehicle to Building (V2B) is to smooth the electrical load profile on a household level rather than to reduce the individual-related total energy consumption and thereby the CO₂ emissions.

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.

When looking into using PCMCIA PC Cards in the avionics market, three areas must be researched. The first is what are the applications and benefits of using the PC Cards while in flight, followed by the applications and benefits on the ground, and thirdly on how to make a PC Card that would stand up to the rugged avionics environment. PCMCIA PC Cards can be used in all aspects of flight. Three possible applications on the ground are; paperless documentation, modifications, flightline changes. Once airborne, PC Cards can be removed and a different functionality card can be inserted. One PC card socket can be used for many different functions during one flight. Some of the possible applications for PC Cards inflight are; flight plan changes, backup Line Replaceable Units (LRUs), and solid state data collection.

The requirement for crew resource management (CRM), or aircrew coordination training (ACT) in military parlance, has been well documented and attested to. In addition, aircraft systems training has become more intense and more in-depth in the new aircraft designs, especially in multi-crew and complex aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey Tiltrotor. (see Figure 1) Former training systems detailed training procedures that called for classroom training and simulation/simulator training followed by flight training. Improvements in aircraft flight skills training provide increased flying training capability coupled with reduced training time by integrating a mixed simulation/flight training syllabus, e.g. two to three simulation periods followed by one or two flight training periods covering the same material/skills. In addition, the simulation training will introduce new skills; the following flight periods will further refine/hone those skills.

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.

In recent years there has been increasing interest in quantifying the emissions from aircraft in order to generate inventories of emissions for climate models, technology and scenario studies, and inventories of emissions for airline fleets typically presented in environmental reports. The preferred method for calculating aircraft engine emissions of NOx, HC, and CO is the proprietary “P3T3” method. This method relies on proprietary airplane and engine performance models along with proprietary engine emissions characterizations. In response and in order to provide a transparent method for calculating aircraft engine emissions non proprietary fuel flow based methods 1,2,3 have been developed. This paper presents derivation, updates, and clarifications of the fuel flow method methodology known as “Fuel Flow Method 2”.

Carbon and rephosphorized pre-strained sheet steels for cold drawing forming operations were studied and the tensile, high cycle fatigue and fatigue crack propagation properties were determined. The fatigue limit was found to be higher for 20% than for 1% pre-strained condition. Threshold stress intensity factors (▵Ků) of 5.29 MPa. m1/2 for rephosphorized steel and 7.07 MPa. m1/2 for carbon steel. Critical crack lenghts were calculated by ▵Ků and fatigue limit data using the Lukas-Klesnil short-crack criterion. Through fractographic analysis it was possible to determine the general behavior of tested materials near threshold.