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The existent competitiveness in the automobile industry has been taking their manufacturers to an incessant search for methods and processes that seek the production of vehicles with quality and accessible costs to their costumers. The Vehicle Development Process (VDP) became an essential element for the success of a vehicle in the market, because the companies found out that, when concentrating their efforts during the development phase, the opportunities for product improvement will be much less onerous when compared with the costs spent when the vehicle are already in production. On the other hand, those improvement opportunities are evidently more difficult of be pointed during VDP than when the vehicle is already in production. This article aims to evaluate how the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology can be applied to the vehicle development process in order to provide significant results in terms of quality improvement, cost optimization and reduction of development timing.

This paper explains the evolution of Electric and Hybrid propulsion system from its early beginning and the drawbacks faced along the way, explaining why the Internal Combustion Engine turned out to be dominant and the reasons why the fossil fuel model is now in question. It explains the recent developments that allowed its production and the progressive electrification steps leading from conventional Internal Combustion Technology towards the top electrification technologies. It demonstrates how some old-fashioned technologies are reinvented in order to boost performance and efficiency on Hybrid Propulsion systems. The paper explains the evolution on the Hybrid Propulsion Systems architecture in the last 20 years and how it brought a considerable improvement on efficiency and performance leading to the highly advanced hybrid vehicles now in production. It also points out to future new developments on the sector.

1 During the development of a new clutch disc damping system and after three months of hard work the engineering team got stuck with unsatisfactory system performance (rattle noise), despite the help of a computer simulation software. The only alternative seemed to be using a more expensive damping concept but, besides the fact that there wasn't much development time left, that option would increase part cost by unacceptable US$ 200, plus development cost. The team then decided to try Taguchi's Robust Engineering optimization approach for the first time. In just two weeks the authors got a 4.6 dB gain on the signal-to-noise ratio. That allowed us to keep the initially proposed system, thus avoiding the cost increase. Besides, the authors were able to keep the development schedule on track.

The fuel indicator float inside the fuel tank, also called just float or erroneously, fuel indicator, is in reality a fuel level sender. It is apparently a really simple part, but it consists of a small system constituted of the float itself; the float arm articulated to an axle carrying a moving contact over a resistor; and the resistor inside a housing/flange. Its function is to convert the fuel level measurements inside the tank in suitable information to the instruments in the vehicle instrument panel. Since a few years ago, it has suffered successive changes toward the objective of improving quality, durability, reliability and performance, or even motivated by innovations in the installation environment and correlated systems, such as, emission controls, affecting the tank internal space, and highly corrosive type fuels.

The sheet metal joining through spot welding is the most widely used process for automotive body building, where an average vehicle has around 5,000 spot welding points in its structure. In this sense, the spot welding project is critical to the final product performance and it must be done in a way that can assure both quality and durability of the vehicle, already taking into consideration the fact that the spot weld mechanical properties related to fatigue and rupture resistance are much lower when compared to other available welding techniques like MIG welding for example. These properties have a direct impact in the fatigue durability and crashworthiness properties of the vehicle, as a significant part of the structural resistance goes through these spot welds. With this scenario, the correct application of FEA techniques is very important to assure that the projected joints and spot weld disposition meet the product targets in terms of safety and durability.

Body in White (BIW) torsional stiffness is an important parameter for passenger vehicles, influencing its behavior regarding Noise, Vibration & Harshness (NVH), durability and handling. A BIW with high stiffness may impact mass and cost since it would be necessary to add reinforcements and/or increase thickness of the panels with more contribution for this parameter. An OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) may have to choose an existing platform to continue a particular vehicle family and this decision will be based on mass and costs. This work aims to study a relationship between mass and stiffness of some platforms, trying to give an auxiliary parameter to help in the OEM's decision, differentiating the stiffness of the lower (platform) and upper body.