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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)

A 3.4 kW, 42 V permanent magnet alternator based high power generation system was built and tested in the Delphi R&D laboratory. It is belt driven system with 3.37: 1 pulley ratio. The size of the alternator is slightly less than the production CS-144 Lundell machine with 1/3 less inertia. For cost reasons, the controller uses a single SCR bridge rectifier. The prototype, which is capable of producing 34A/80A at idle/cruising speed, has been tested in the laboratory yielding 84.5%/70.7% efficiencies. Up to cruising speed, the system shows an improvement in full load efficiencies of 5-6 percentile points over a similar 14 V permanent magnet machine with dual SCR bridge. This efficiency improvement is due to the reduction in the converter losses as the current is reduced to one third of its 14 V values even with the same copper losses in both machines.

To date the market for P/M stainless steel has not developed appreciably, and has centered largely on the development of austenitic 300 series stainless steels. Although these stainless steels are noted for their resistance to corrosion in many media, it has been difficult for P/M parts fabricators to produce parts that will sustain 1,000 hours of protection in a 5% salt solution. The problem starts with the water atomized powders and continues with the sintering practice exercised to produce the parts. Reasons for lack of corrosion resistance, based upon these considerations, will be discussed. In addition, the ferritic stainless steels are being considered seriously for fuel injectors. These emerging applications derive from the corrosive environment that may become a problem if and when alternative fuels are introduced. P/M ferritic stainless steels may also assume a position as a corrosion resistant magnetic material required in ABS systems which are currently emerging.

An advanced fuel injector designed specifically for low energy density gaseous fuels has been developed which demonstrates compelling performance advantages over fuel injectors utilizing conventional solenoid technology. The injector incorporates design features that are necessary to optimize the performance for fuels such as CNG, LNG, and propane. This paper provides a background of magnetic latching technology and addresses the application of the technology to an advanced, pressure balanced, gaseous fuel injector. Performance of the injector will be discussed in detail as will features of the injector specifically adapted for gaseous applications. The ability of the injector to solve fuel metering problems facing the industry, such as turn down ratio limitations, accuracy, durability, and compatibility with existing engine electronics, are addressed.

Abstract This article discusses a multi-item planning and scheduling problem in a job-shop system with consideration of energy consumption. Planning is considered by a set of periods, each one is characterized by a demand, energy, and length. Scheduling is determined by the sequences of jobs on available resources. A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem is formulated to integrate planning and scheduling, it is considered as an NP-difficult problem. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is then developed to solve the MILP, and then a hybridized approach of simulated annealing with genetic algorithm (HGASA) is presented to optimize the results. Finally, numerical results are presented and analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) samples were heat treated to produce materials with tensile strengths in the range of 100 ksi to 170 ksi. Microalloyed steels were also produced with equivalent tensile and yield strength levels. These steels were evaluated for mechanical properties in terms of tensile and yield strength, ductility, impact toughness, fracture toughness and fatigue strength. Machinability was extensively evaluated through tests of drilling, turning and plunge machining. This paper reports on this comprehensive comparative evaluation of these two important classes of materials for use in the automotive industry.

In automotive body manufacturing the dies for blanking/trimming/piercing are under most severe loading condition involving high contact stress at high impact loading and large number of cycles. With continuous increase in sheet metal strength, the trim die service life becomes a great concern for industries. In this study, competing trim die manufacturing routes were compared, including die raw materials produced by hot-working (wrought) vs. casting, edge-welding (as repaired condition) vs. bulk base metals (representing new tools), and the heat treatment method by induction hardening vs. furnace through-heating. CaldieTM, a Uddeholm trademarked grade was used as trim die material. The mechanical tests are performed using a WSU developed trimming simulator, with fatigue loading applied at cubic die specimen’s cutting edges through a tungsten carbide rod to accelerate the trim edge damage. The tests are periodically interrupted at specified cycles for measurement of die edge damage.

Two different aluminium alloy materials have been used to produce ventilated brake discs, on one hand, AS17G0.6 hypereutectic alloy and on the other hand, AS7G0.6 reinforced with 20% in wt. of SiC particles. The casting production technique used has been Low Pressure Casting (LPC) and some of the brake discs have been heat treated using a T6 treatment. Once the ventilated brake discs were produced and machined, they were tested in a dynamometer in order to compare the performance under service conditions of the aluminum alloy and grey cast iron (GCI) discs currently used in the market.

Three different models, the law-of-the-wall, a modified law-of-the-wall, and an approximate one-dimensional solution to the energy equation are compared for the spatially-resolved prediction of engine heat tranfer. The multidimensional hydrodynamic code KIVA is used for the fluid mechanic simulation. Two different engine geometries are studied; one being a pancake-shaped chamber, and the other a bowl-in-piston geometry. The comparisons are done for a range of initial conditions of gas flow. Rates-of-pressure-rise were also varied to represent rates typical of those encountered in motored engines, and those found in fired engines. Comparisons with experimental results show that the heat transfer predictions using the law-of-the-wall may be in error when source terms such as the transient, work and chemical energy terms have a significant effect in determining the temperature profile in the boundary layer.

This work is based in a model of neural and wavelets networks using published experimental data. The objective is to compare a neural and a wavelet network estimating the creep rupture strength based on chemical composition of Fe-2.25Cr-Mo and Fe-(9-12)Cr steels, and on its heat treatment temperature and life time. It will be determined the configuration that provides the best fit of the data.

Atomized iron powder was screened to narrow fractions and annealed. Intermetallic Fe3P powder was blended with the fractions to provide an alloy containing 0.45% phosphorus after sintering. Cores were pressed to a density of 7.4 g/cm3 and sintered at temperatures ranging from 1600°F (870°C) to 2600°F (1430°C) in hydrogen. Magnetic properties were determined from the sintered cores and compared with previous properties measured for iron and hot repressed 0.45% phosphorus iron. It was found that the induction at any density level was approximately 500 gausses (0.05 teslas) lower than for iron. Remanent magnetization was influenced by the size of the pores. If pores were large, remanent magnetization was 8 K gausses (0.8 teslas) and increased to 12 K gausses (1.2 teslas) as the pores become finer. Both maximum permeability and the coercive force were improved when 0.45% phosphorus was added.

Both humans and onboard radiosensitive systems (electronics, materials, payloads and experiments) are exposed to the deleterious effects of the harsh space radiations found in the space environment. The purpose of this paper is to present the space radiation environment extended to deep space based on environment models for the moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and compare these radiation environments with the earth's radiation environment, which is used as a comparative baseline. The space radiation environment consists of high-energy protons and electrons that are magnetically “trapped” in planetary bodies that have an intrinsic magnetic field; this is the case for earth, Jupiter, and Saturn (the moon and Mars do not have a magnetic field). For the earth this region is called the “Van Allen belts,” and models of both the trapped protons (AP-8 model) and electrons (AE-8 model) have been developed.

The design and performance of a brushless d.c. motor with high power density using ferrite magnets and a two transistor drive is described. The motor utilizes a single-phase operating principle which permits the use of an electronic drive circuit utilizing only two power switching devices, making it cost effective with a conventional d.c. commutator motor using P.W.M. speed control. High power density is obtained by the use of an external rotor construction and a multi-pole format with a concentrated winding. The starting problems normally associated with single-phase motors is addressed and an experimentally proven solution is described. Significant reduction in starting current is achieved as a no cost bonus and significant improvements in overall operating efficiency can be obtained if the power density is reduced to normal auto industry levels.

Formability of galvanized steel has been one of the key Issues In the automotive industry's transition to more corrosion resistant vehicle parts. This report describes a very ductile and formable grade of continuously annealed, hot dipped galvanized sheet steel that was specifically developed for difficult deep drawing or stretch-forming applications. The report also discusses performance of this grade in automotive stamping plants.

The preform annealing process is a two-stage stamping method for shaping non age-hardenable (i.e. 5000 series) aluminum sheet panels in which the panel is heat treated in between the two steps to improve overall formability of the material. The intermediate annealing heat treatment eliminates the cold work accumulated in the material during the first draw. The process enables the ability to form more complex parts than a conventional aluminum stamping process. A demonstration of local annealing for this process was conducted to form a one-piece aluminum liftgate inner panel for a large sport utility vehicle using the steel product geometry without design concessions. In prior work, this process was demonstrated by placing the entire panel in a convection oven for several minutes to completely anneal the cold work.

A software tool has been developed to aid designers and process engineers in the development and improvement of heat treat processes. This tool, DANTE™, combines metallurgical phase transformation models with mass diffusion, thermal and mechanical models to simulate the heating, carburization, quenching and tempering of steel parts. The technology behind the DANTE software and some applications are presented in this paper.

In terms of reducing the gear noise of automatic transmission, improvement of heat treatment distortion of the annulus gear is very important, because annulus gear is very sensitive heat treatment due to thin walled ring-like shape. Nitriding is very effective method to meet the both requirements for heat treatment distortion and durability of the annulus gear, as compared with conventional carburizing. However, conventional nitriding has problems to be applied for annulus gear, such as brittleness of compound layer and low adhesion strength between compound layer and matrix. In this research, we developed the high toughness nitriding and greatly improved the problems as mentioned above, by controlling gas pressure and temperature.

Vehicle diagnostic systems have been proposed which are based on the interrogation of a series of sensors located at critical points of the vehicle by an automatic check-out device which is a part of the service shop equipment. At least one system of this type already is in use on an imported passenger car. Systems also are in existence which provide a series of alarms to warn the operator of certain off-normal conditions which may occur during daily vehicle operation. Many off-normal conditions thus alarmed may never be reported because they are of a momentary or intermittent nature. This type of condition rarely can be detected by means of a checkout on the floor of the service shop. The diagnostic system described monitors off-normal conditions as they occur during day-to-day operation and provides a record of them for use by maintenance people. The simplest form of the system provides only a count of the number of occurrences.

Abstract In order to maximize the reluctance torque component, multiple-layer flux barriers are usually employed in permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance (PMAREL) motors. However, the permanent magnet (PM) dimension of each layer should be carefully designed to achieve the best performance with the minimum PM material. This article investigates this issue and proposes a method to define the PM width according to the sinusoidal no-load airgap flux density distribution. First, the accuracy of the no-load magnetic circuit for airgap flux density calculation is verified with finite element analysis (FEA), considering single or multiple flux-barriers per pole. The effects of the location, width, and thickness of the PM are investigated separately. Then the PM width is derived by the equations developed from the no-load magnetic circuit. The proposed method reduces both the PM mass and the torque ripple.