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This specification covers quality assurance sampling and testing procedures used to determine conformance to applicable material specifications of corrosion- and heat-resistant steel and alloy forgings.

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.

This paper will identify the role of the engineer in the Total Quality Management movement. In the latter 1980's quality and reliability were identified as being a result of good business practices, rather than only being effected by manufacturing and design systems. In the past, engineers were given total design responsibility with little or no control once the design left their hands. Product cost analysis recently identified approximately 65% of product cost comes from areas which the engineer cannot control. This paper will show how the skills of the engineer are being integrated into the total business environment through a structured planning system, resulting in products and services with customer focus. Quality and reliability in the 1990's will be a result of this well defined and applied business system.

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.

An expansion tank is an integral part of an automotive engine cooling system. The primary function of the expansion tank is to allow the thermal expansion of the coolant. The expansion tank will be referred as hot bottle in this paper. In the System level modeling of the engine internal flow, it is imperative to accurately model and characterize the components in the system. It is often challenging to define the hot bottle accurately with limited parameters in the 1D modeling. Currently it is very difficult to optimize the system by testing. Since testing consumes a lot of time and changes in development stage. If the hot bottle component is not defined properly in the system network, then the system flow balancing cannot be predicted accurately. In this paper, the approach of creating a 1D modeling tool for hot bottle flow prediction is discussed and the simulation results are compared with the physical test data.

This document describes the 2-D computer-aided design (CAD) template for the HPM-1 H-point machine or HPD available from SAE. The elements of the HPD include the curve shapes, datum points and lines, and calibration references. The intended purpose for this information is to provide a master CAD reference for design and benchmarking. The content and format of the data files that are available are also described.

This document describes the 2-D computer-aided design (CAD) template for the HPM-1 H-point machine or HPD available from SAE. The elements of the HPD include the curve shapes, datum points and lines, and calibration references. The intended purpose for this information is to provide a master CAD reference for design and benchmarking. The content and format of the data files that are available are also described.

A theoretical model is presented for predicting springback of wide sheet metal subjected to 2D-stretch-bending operation. The material is assumed to be normal anisotropic with n-th power hardening law, σ = Fεn. Two types of stretch-bending experiment, bending with simultaneous stretching and stretch-bending followed by consecutive re-stretching, is conducted using AK sheet steel and sheet aluminum alloy A5182-O. The measured values of springback are in good agreement with analytical ones for a wide range of bending radii, stretching forces, and loading conditions. Furthermore, a calculation method for predicting springback configurations of 2D sheet metal parts with arbitrary cross-sections which include both stretch-bending and stretch-bending-unbending deformation is proposed.

THE development of the two-stage torque converter with automatic double clutch is presented here. The author covers particularly the substitution of casting for fabrication for several of the units in the transmission.

The potential contributions of acoustical technology to manufacturing companies pervade nearly all of its functions from marketing and product planning to design engineering and quality control. Despite this, however, companies generally feel uneasy when they embark on programs to use acoustics in their operations because the technology seems complicated and somehow harder to “get a handle on” than it is in other cases. But the issues of product sound, and the benefits of acoustics on a diagnostic tool are too important to ignore, so in this paper we discuss these issues in a “20 questions” format to help planners, engineers and managers as they proceed to implement acoustical technology in their organizations.

This paper describes the engineering, manufacturing and integration necessary to produce the Corvette's first ever all-aluminum spaceframe (see Figure 1). The engineering and manufacturing of the spaceframe was a joint venture between General Motors and suppliers ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America) and Dana Corporation. ALCOA led the initial design of the spaceframe; Dana Corp led the manufacturing; General Motors' Engineering and Manufacturing groups led the integration of the assembly. The aluminum spaceframe design is modeled after the baseline steel structure of the Corvette coupe. The aluminum spaceframe reduces 140 lbs from the steel baseline and enters the plant at 285 lbs. This frame allows the 2006 Corvette Z06 to enter the market at a 3100 lbs curb weight. Aluminum casting, extruding, stamping, hydroforming, laser welding, Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding, Self Pierce Riveting (SPR), and full spaceframe machining make up the main technologies used to produce this spaceframe.

The General Motors (GM) Corvette design team was challenged with providing a C6 Z06 vehicle spaceframe that maintained the structural performance of its C5 predecessor while reducing mass by at least 56 kg. An additional requirement inherent to the project was that the design must be integrated into the C6 assembly processes with minimal disruption, i.e. seamless integration. In response to this challenge, a collaborative team was formed, consisting of design engineers from General Motors, Alcoa and Dana Corporation. The result of this collaborative effort is an aluminum Z06 spaceframe that satisfies the high performance expectations of the vehicle while reducing the mass by approximately 62 kg. The frame consists of aluminum extrusions, castings and sheets joined by MIG welding, laser welding and self-piercing rivets. The extrusions are 6XXX series alloys, the castings are permanent mold A356 while the sheet panels are formed from the 5XXX series of alloys.

Weight reduction of automobiles is key technology in order to improve fuel economy and driving performance. Concerning of the motorcycle engine, weight reduction is also the fundamental and important technologies. Cylinder is one of the main parts of engine and the wear characteristics of the cylinder liner are largely related to the engine performance. Gray iron liners squeezed in aluminum cylinder block have been widely used. This is due to the excellent resistance to abrasion of gray iron. In order to realize light all aluminum cylinder, the good abrasion resistant method is necessary to develop to be applied with inner surface of liners. We have developed the new Rapid Composite Plating System for the motorcycle engine cylinders. This system made it possible to adopt all aluminum cylinders without cast iron liners to new type of engine.

Challenges surrounding OEM′s go far beyond to manufacture and delivery high quality vehicles. A perfect design and performance in the lowest cost possible is extremely essential to delivery to the customer the best vehicles. In order to guarantee all these targets, a robust process must be set to developed and implemented. It is known all process limitations, which faces the emergent markets and the lack of infrastructure considering the developed countries. All this limitations can deeply affect the robustness of the process. Some innovative solutions are becoming common from the engineering development combined with the manufacturing team to work out these limitations and provide excellent process stability. In this present paper it will be discussed the Bi component structural adhesive (2K PU epoxy) utilization to establish the process in the assembly line, mainly in order to improve parts dimensionally.

The 42-Volt electrical system is being introduced in automobiles to provide the extra power needed for various electromagnetic devices. These paper discuses the opportunity offered by the 42Volt for powder metal parts and the challenges. Major opportunities are in motors. A brief discussion of motors and the performance requirements for the magnetic core material used is included. Brushless motor design can benefit the most from insulated iron powder compacts because of the design simplicity of powder metal parts and three dimensional flux capability which is most beneficial in rotating devices.(P/M stands for powder metallurgy and not permanent magnets)

This paper presents a discussion of the component evaluation and design development work performed in developing a 4300 F reentry vehicle nose cap temperature sensor. Material compatabilities, insulation resistance, and atmospheric pressure effects on bare wire calibration data are discussed in some detail. The final design is outlined and the application problems discussed. The probe utilizes: a sintered iridium high temperature sheath (4300 F) and platinum 20% rhodium as the low temperature sheath (3000 F); beryllia as insulation -- hard fired at 4300 F and compacted powder at 3000 F; tungsten versus tungsten 26% rhenium as the thermocouple pair.

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.

Hayes Lemmerz has pursued fin configurations in straight and curved fin rotors to achieve high airflow velocity. The largest increase in airflow velocity of 37.2% is achieved by curving fins to a specific entry and exit angle and increasing surface area by increasing fin number. There is a need for funneling air into the narrow entry in the hub area. The new “Hayes Air Director” successfully channels air into the curved fins. Hayes Lemmerz is in the process of casting rotors with curved fins and the air director idea. Dynamometer and vehicle tests will follow. The current renwood model of the rotor design shows 34.8 to 37.2% increase in airflow velocity when tested on the Hayes Airflow machine.

Hydrodynamic parameters play a major role in the dynamics and control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The performance of an AUV is dependent on the parameter variations and a proper understanding of these parametric influences is essential for the design, modelling and control of high performance AUVs. In this paper, a six sigma framework for the sensitivity analysis of a flatfish type AUV is presented. Robust design techniques such as Taguchi’s design method and statistical analysis tools such as Pareto-ANOVA, and ANOVA are used to identify the hydrodynamic parameters influencing the dynamic performance of an AUV. In the initial study, it is found that when the vehicle commanded in forward direction, it is in bow down configuration which is unacceptable for AUV motion. This is because of the vehicle buoyancy and shape of the vehicle. So the sensitivity analysis of pitch angle variation is studied by using robust design techniques.