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Flexibility, oil resistance, and the need for heat resistance to 150°C-plus temperatures have traditionally limited automotive design engineers to two options - thermoset rubber or heat-shielding conventional thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). Both of these options present limitations in part design, the ability to consolidate the number of components in a part of assembly, and on total cost. This paper presents a class of high-performance, flexible thermoplastic elastomers based on dynamically vulcanized polyacrylate (ACM) elastomer dispersed in a continuous matrix of polyamide (PA) thermoplastic. These materials are capable of sustained heat resistance to 150°C and short-term heat resistance to 175°C, without requiring heat shielding. Recent advancements in blow molding and functional testing of the PA//ACM TPEs for automotive air management (ducts) and underhood sealing applications will be shown.

As part of the 1997 Propane Vehicle Challenge, a team of twelve UTEP students converted a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan with a 3.3 L V6 engine to dedicated Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) operation according to the 1997 Propane Vehicle Challenge (PVC) competition rules (16). The 1997 UTEP team developed an LPG liquid phase port fuel injection (LPP-FI) system for the minivan. The UTEP design strategy combines simplicity and sound engineering practices with the effective use of heat resistant materials to maintain the LPG in the liquid phase at temperatures encountered in the fuel delivery system. The team identified two options for fuel storage with in-tank fuel pumps. The competition vehicle incorporates a five-manifold eight inch diameter Sleegers Engineering LPG tank fitted with a Walbro LPTS in-tank pump system, providing a calculated range of 310 city miles and 438 highway miles.

Engines are assigned big subjects such as low emission and low fuel consumption as well as higher output (higher efficiency) in the latest trend of environmental protection. In order to meet these requirements, Air/Fuel ratio of recent high performance engines is being arranged leaner than that of conventional engines. As a result exhaust valve seat inserts used in these engines have problems of their wear resistance because of high exhaust gas temperature. By analyzing wear mechanism under the lean burn conditions, authors developed material for exhaust valve seat inserts which show superior wear resistance under high operating temperature. For the purpose to enhance heat resistance, authors added alloy steel powder for matrix powder and used hard particles which have good diffusion with matrix. The developed material does not include Ni and Co powders for cost saving and has superior machinability.

Getting information about new products and/ or services across the design and manufacturing/ quality assurance community of automotive engineers is one of the greatest challenges of mankind. Since information is the key to progress, an organization's success often depends on its ability to communicate. National and international competition forces designers and manufacturers to continuously innovate and make their product design and manufacturing / assembly processes lean and market driven. Simultaneously the time to market is rapidly shrinking. This means that marketing and sales departments have to explain and sell their increasingly more complex products to an increasingly more educated and globally distributed customer base at a competitive price, and in a short time.

The requirements for diesel and gasoline engines are continuously increasing with respect to emissions, fuel consumption and durability. Besides the engine development process the quality of the production engine itself has to be ensured. This paper discusses alternative philosophies and approaches in terms of the quality management process. Based on a detailed analysis of the required equipment advanced solutions are presented. Modular containerized test cells are described being equipped exactly to the current testing task ready to use in low infrastructure. The testing capacity of the facility can be adjusted to the actual production volume by simply removing or adding modular test cells. Thus, at every facility the testing tasks can be executed successfully and the investment can be kept low.

A catalyzed hydrocarbon (HC) trap aiming at the super-ultra low emission vehicle (SULEV) regulation was developed using a metal-impregnated zeolite. To enhance the adsorption and to raise the desorption temperature for a wide range of HC species, the modification of zeolite with certain metals was needed and Ag was found to be the most promising. Using a Ag impregnated zeolite, a three way catalyst was prepared, and its HC purification ability for a model gas simulating cold-start HCs was studied. Its heat resistance was also examined. A vehicle test for a fresh catalyzed HC trap showed that the cold-start HC after the newly developed trap almost reached the SULEV regulation level.

The technological advances which have been made in the computer hardware industry, from interactive computer graphics systems to numerically controlled manufacturing and inspection machines, has resulted in major changes in the impeller design process. The contents of this paper describes an “Interactive CAD/CAM Geometric Modeling System for Impellers” developed to integrate aerodynamic design, mechanical design, structural and dynamics analysis, manufacturing and quality assurance into an integrated CAD/CAM impeller system. The system allows for more design and analysis iterations to take place in a short time frame, resulting in optimized impeller designs. The system also reduces the lead time required for part fabrication and inspection from many months to a few weeks.

This paper outlines what a large company is doing on a corporate staff basis to help combat Product Liability problems. Eaton Corporation is multi-national and serves a variety of markets. The extensive and complex line of products dictates the need for a well organized, corporate Product Assurance Program. The program is made up of five thrusts: 1) Corporate Policy, 2) Guidelines, 3) Divisional Committees, 4) Surveys and 5) Training. Utilizing a product development project, the implementation of several elements of Product Quality Assurance are explained. The program was designed for flexibility and emphasizes the chairman's motto to “DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, EVERY TIME.”

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic fabricator technical training for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Production

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic safety training, technical training and fiber awareness for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems.

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic safety training, technical training and fiber awareness for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Logisticians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Shipping Receiving Production Purchasing

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic installer technical training for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Logisticians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Shipping Receiving Production Purchasing

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic installer technical training for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Logisticians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Shipping Receiving Production Purchasing

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic technician, quality assurance, or engineer technical training for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Production

This document establishes training guidelines applicable to fiber optic technician, quality assurance, or engineer technical training for individuals involved in the manufacturing, installation, support, integration and testing of fiber optic systems. Applicable personnel include: Managers Engineers Technicians Trainers/Instructors Third Party Maintenance Agencies Quality Assurance Production

A new heat resistant aluminized steel, trade named ALUMA-TI, has been developed which has unique mechanical and corrosion properties especially attractive for high temperature applications where economy is a prime consideration for material selection. Presented are its mechanical properties and response to various corrosive environments. High temperature strength and oxidation resistance is far superior to Type I ALUMINIZED steel at temperatures above 704°C (1300°F). In combined oxidation/corrosion tests, ALUMA-TI is comparable to AISI 409 stainless steel. Therefore, ALUMA-TI is a prime material candidate for automotive exhaust systems.

This paper presents our efforts to formalize the knowledge domain of nondestructive quality control of automotive composite components with organic (resin) matrices and to develop a prototype knowledge-based system, called NICC for Nondestructive Inspection of Composite Components, to help in the quality assurance of individual components. Geometric and bonding characteristics of parts and assemblies are taken into account, as opposed to the better understood evaluation of test specimens. The reasoning process was divided in two stages: in the first stage all flaws that might be present in the given part are characterized; in the second stage appropriate nondestructive testing procedures are specified to detect each of the possible flaws. The use of nondestructive techniques in the inspection of composites is fairly recent and hence, the knowledge required to develop an expert system is still very scattered and not fully covered in the literature.

High demands in fuel consumption, efficiency, and low emissions lead to complex control functions for current and future diesel engine management systems. Great effort is necessary for their optimal calibration. At the same time, and particularly for cost reasons, many variants exist on one individual type of diesel engine management system. Not only is it used for several base engines, but these engines are also used in different environments and for different tasks. For optimal deployment, their calibration status must also be optimized individually. Furthermore, the demand for shorter development cycles and enhanced quality lead to a catalogue of new requirements for the calibration process and the affiliated tool. A new calibration system was developed, which optimally reflects the new demands.

A new Diesel Particulate Generator (DPG) has been developed and commercialized for the automated testing of full-size, light duty Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs). The system was optimized for filter development testing with a wide parameter range of relevant functional tests, and quality assurance testing where repeatability and rapid testing is important. A carefully designed Diesel-fuelled burner is combined with blowers to produce flows, temperatures and particulate matter (PM) that are representative of Diesel engines. The burner operates with continuous combustion of a Diesel fuel spray, with three-stage introduction of controlled airflows. Variation of these flows allows control of particulate generation independently of total gas flow and temperature (over a temperature and flow range). The system can generate stable PM at more than 20 g/h, or operate without PM formation so permitting preheating of a test filter.