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The purpose of this paper is to use PAM-CRASH, a finite element analysis solver, to assess the performance of a mass production vehicle cross car beam (CCB) under an overlap frontal crash scenario (crashworthiness). Simulation results were reviewed according to what is plausible to register regarding some critical points displacements and, moreover, to identify its stress concentrations zones. Furthermore, it was also computed the CCB modal analysis (noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) assessment) in order to examine if its natural modes are within with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) design targets.

The available data at the beginning of the present study consisted of the structure CAD file and performance requirements stated by the OEM for NVH. No technical information was available concerning crashworthiness. Taking into account these limitations, it was decided to adapt the requirements for other mass production cars of the same category, as regards dynamic loading. A dynamic explicit code finite element analysis was performed throughout the CCB structure simulating the 120e−3 s crash event. For the modal analysis, there were some necessary modifications to the explicit finite element model in order to perform the analysis in implicit code. In addition, the car body in white stiffness was assigned at the boundaries. These stiffness values are withdrawn from the points where the CCB is attached to the car body’s sheet metal components.

Although the unavailability of published results for this particular CCB model prevents a comparison of the present results, the trends and order of magnitude of the crash simulation results are within the expectations for this type of product. Concerning modal analysis, the steering column first natural frequency has a percent deviation from the design lower bound value of 5.09 percent when local body stiffness is considered and of 1.94 percent with fixed boundary conditions. The other requirement of the NVH assessment regarding a 5 Hz minimum interval between first vehicle CCB mode and the first mode of the steering column was indeed achieved with both boundary configurations.

This study is a further confirmation of the interest of numerical modeling as a first step before actual experimental testing, saving time and money in an automotive industry that has seen an enormous increase of the demand for new car models in the last decade.

A novel non-pneumatic safety tire, namely mechanical elastic wheel (ME-Wheel), has been developed recently to solve problems, including tire bursting and flat tire, of typical pneumatic tires. This paper aims to predict the life of the ME-Wheel accurately and settle the problem of lower lifespan.

This study proposes a new method to establish a novel model of virtual proving ground based on finite element analysis, and by combining with the random vibration damage analysis method, the life of an ME-Wheel is predicted precisely. Next, the weak parts and infinite life parts of the ME-Wheel are investigated from the perspective of constant life design, and an approximate response surface model is developed, which is suitable for the ME-Wheel. Then, the optimal results of the ME-Wheel are obtained, including tire modal, mass and its lifetime.

It is found that the proposed methods can provide a reliable theoretical basis for further improving the structural design and material selection of ME-Wheel parts. The results show that the improved ME-Wheel can reduce the weight and greatly improve the ability of anti-resonance, and the lifetime of ME-Wheel has significantly improved.

A new type of non-pneumatic tire (ME-Wheel) has been developed to avoid problems with traditional tires, such as tire leaking or puncture. A new method to establish a novel model of virtual proving ground based on finite element analysis has been proposed. The weakest key component of the ME-Wheel is determined. The life, mass and modal of the ME-Wheel are optimized.

Among various efforts pursued to produce fuel efficient vehicles, light weight engineering (i.e. the use of low‐density structurally‐efficient materials, the application of advanced manufacturing and joining technologies and the design of highly‐integrated, multi‐functional components/sub‐assemblies) plays a prominent role. In the present work, a multi‐disciplinary design optimization methodology has been presented and subsequently applied to the development of a light composite vehicle door (more specifically, to an inner door panel). The door design has been optimized with respect to its weight while meeting the requirements /constraints pertaining to the structural and NVH performances, crashworthiness, durability and manufacturability. In the optimization procedure, the number and orientation of the composite plies, the local laminate thickness and the shape of different door panel segments (each characterized by a given composite‐lay‐up architecture and uniform ply thicknesses) are used as design variables. The methodology developed in the present work is subsequently used to carry out weight optimization of the front door on Ford Taurus, model year 2001. The emphasis in the present work is placed on highlighting the scientific and engineering issues accompanying multidisciplinary design optimization and less on the outcome of the optimization analysis and the computational resources/architecture needed to support such activity.

Application of the engineering design optimization methods and tools to the design of automotive body‐in‐white (BIW) structural components made of polymer metal hybrid (PMH) materials is considered. Specifically, the use of topology optimization in identifying the optimal initial designs and the use of size and shape optimization techniques in defining the final designs is discussed. The optimization analyses employed were required to account for the fact that the BIW structural PMH component in question may be subjected to different in‐service loads be designed for stiffness, strength or buckling resistance and that it must be manufacturable using conventional injection over‐molding. The paper demonstrates the use of various engineering tools, i.e. a CAD program to create the solid model of the PMH component, a meshing program to ensure mesh matching across the polymer/metal interfaces, a linear‐static analysis based topology optimization tool to generate an initial design, a nonlinear statics‐based size and shape optimization program to obtained the final design and a mold‐filling simulation tool to validate manufacturability of the PMH component.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study in which creative design concepts have been applied to automotive brake rotor design.

The literature review on creative design concepts and braking system scenario has been carried out. By studying the existing brake rotors and applying creative design concepts, modified rotor designs have been developed.

The experience gained out of the study indicated that braking efficiency and durability of the braking system can be significantly improved by the adoption of proposed designs.

The research has been carried out for an automotive passenger car. The findings of this research work could be extended to similar models of buses and trucks.

The usage of the proposed designs reduces the driver’s effort in braking and adds significantly to the life of the rotors.

A case study has been reported to indicate the application of creative design concepts for enhancing the efficiency of automotive braking system in cars.

Snap fits are crucial in automotive applications for rapid assembly and disassembly of mating components, eliminating the need for fasteners. This study aims to focus on designing and analyzing serviceable cantilever fit snap connections used in automobile plastic components. Snap fits are classified into permanent and semi-permanent fittings, with permanent fittings having a snap clipping angle between 0° and 5° and semi-permanent fittings having a clipping angle between 15° and 45°. Polypropylene random copolymer is chosen for its exceptional fatigue resistance and elasticity.

The design process includes determining dimensions, computing assembly, disassembly pressures and creating three-dimensional computer-aided design models. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to evaluate the snap-fit mechanism’s stress, deformation and general functionality in operational scenarios.

The study develops a modified snap-fit mechanism with decreased bending stress and enhanced mating force optimization. The maximum bending stress during assembly is 16.80 MPa, requiring a mating force of 7.58 N, while during disassembly, it is 37.3 MPa, requiring a mating force of 16.85 N. The optimized parameters significantly improve the performance and dependability of the snap-fit mechanism. The results emphasize the need of taking into account both the assembly and disassembly processes in snap-fit design, because the research demonstrates greater forces during disassembly. The approach developed integrates FEA and design for assembly (DFA) concepts to provide a solution for improving the efficiency and reliability of snap-fit connectors in automotive applications.

The research paper’s distinctiveness comes from the fact that it presents a thorough and realistic viewpoint on snap-fit design, emphasizes material selection, incorporates DFA principles and emphasizes the specific requirements of both assembly and disassembly operations. These discoveries may enhance the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of snap-fit connections in plastic automobile parts and beyond. In conclusion, the idea that disassembly needs to be done with a lot more force than installation in a snap-fit design can have a good effect on buzz, squeak and rattle and noise, vibration and harshness characteristics in automobiles.

This study aims to identify and prioritize various growth-accelerating factors in the Indian automotive industry. It further develops a hierarchical model to examine the mutual interactions between the factors, their dependence and their driving power.

This study first identifies the growth-accelerating factors and then uses the modified total interpretive structural modeling (m-TISM) framework, which is an extended version of TISM. It further uses MICMAC analysis to analyze the mutual interrelation between the identified factors.

This study highlights the interrelation amongst the factors using m-TISM model. A hierarchical model shows the level of autonomous, dependence, linkage and independent factors considering the Indian automotive industry. This study also provides the understanding related to the interdependence of growth-accelerating factors.

The government and practitioners could evaluate the growth-accelerating factors which have higher driving power for implementing efficient policies and strategy formulation. By implementing m-TISM model in the Indian automotive industry, auto manufacturers can become more productive and profitable. Future studies could use other methods such as expert opinion to derive the factors, and further model could be verified using structural equation modeling technique.

This study uses a novel m-TISM framework for the analysis of growth-accelerating factors in the context of the Indian automotive industry. It further provides a detailed theoretical and conceptual understanding relating to the philosophy and establishes an interrelation amongst these under-researched growth-accelerating factors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the automotive product recall risk in terms of social sustainability performance and to evaluate the role of buyer‒supplier relationships in improving social sustainability during product recall crises.

A multi-methodology approach is used to empirically analyse the interrelationship between the proposed constructs and enablers of the buyer‒supplier relationship. Structural equation modelling and interpretive structural modelling are followed to analyse the data gathered thorough a questionnaire survey of 204 executives and interviews with 15 managers from the automotive industry.

The results of the study provide evidence regarding the impact of the responsible buyer‒supplier relationship on customer recall concerns and the social sustainability performance of supply chains (SCs). This study also leads to the development of a conceptual model, providing a relationship between the three key concepts used in this study.

Following social sustainability principles, this study addresses the importance of developing strong, responsible relational ties with suppliers to reduce vehicle recalls or successfully recover from a product recall crisis.

This study contributes to the literature by providing theoretical and empirical insights for developing socially responsible SCs and confirming the role of the buyer‒supplier governance mechanism during product recalls in the context of the automotive industry.

This paper focuses on understanding firm-level determinants of industrial robots' adoption and how these determinants result in heterogenous processes of robotisation across firms within the same sector. The paper presents results from in-depth case studies of final assemblers in the South African automotive sector.

The research has been conducted through multiple case studies with a focus on final assemblers. During the case studies, as well as before and after it, data coming from in-depth semi-structured interviews were triangulated with secondary data available from the international database on industrial robots' adoption and documents provided by firms and institutions.

This paper identifies three firm-level determinants of robotisation – i.e. modularity of the production process, flexibility in the use of technology and stability in product design. The results also showed that firms' robotisation depend on each of these determinants as well as their interdependence. The authors introduce a framework to study interdependence between these technology–organisational choices, which reveals heterogenous patterns of technology deployment and related managerial implications.

This research introduces a new framework on factors driving industrial robotisation – a key digital production technology – and offers empirical evidence of the heterogenous deployment of this technology. The authors identify two main manufacturing approaches to robotisation in the automotive sector: one in which the firm designs a robotised process around a certain product design – i.e. the German/American way and one in which the firm designs its product based on certain robotised processes – i.e. the Japanese way. These findings are valuable for both industry, operational research and the scientific community as they reveal heterogeneity on the “how” of robotisation and implications for manufacturing technology management.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.