AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENT

Automotive Component - Clutch Pedal

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion4

Benefits In Terms Of Cost And Mechanical And Physical Properties5

Design6

Results7

Material selection8

Total design10

Conceptual design10

Design analysis12

Old and New Material13

Composition Of Old And New Materials14

Metal14

Polyamide 6.614

Advantage of selecting a New Material14

Rapid prototyping15

Autoclave method17

Carbon Nanotubes19

Cambridge material selection tool19

Manufacturing issues20

Component fabrication22

Conclusions23

References24

Automotive Component - Clutch Pedal

Introduction

The selected automotive component is clutch pedal. The paper explores its key property requirements, which are necessary for the product to perform its function and the other attributes which would be desirable to maximize its performance. The paper covers the use of various IT such as expert system, FEA, CAD, mould flow and rapid prototyping in order to carry out various activities such as material selection, total design, design analysis and mould flow analysis. In this study, the integrated IT tools enable the designer to design and manufacture automotive a composite clutch pedal at higher quality and faster time compared to a metal counterpart. By adopting composite design guides, weight saving from implementing composite materials in the clutch pedal is achievable. It is found that an expert system for material selection enables designer to select the suitable composite material for the clutch pedal by considering various parameters such as strength, modulus, density, manufacturing and economic constraints. Rapid prototyping models enable the designer to communicate effectively their design to other parties early in the design process. Mould flow analysis is carried out to predict the behaviour of material inside the mould and to design the optimum moulding parameters such as fill time, fill temperature and gate location.

Discussion

Product development has changed from the traditional serial process of design, followed by manufacture, to a more organized concurrent process where design and manufacture are considered at a very early stage of design. The concept of concurrent engineering (CE) is no longer new and yet it is still applicable and relevant in today's manufacturing environment. Team working spirit, management involvement, total design process and integration of IT tools are still the essence of CE.

It is reported by Quinn (2011) that the composite design process consists of a few iterative steps, in order to obtain the desired solution. The principle of the design process is similar to non-CE approach, except in this approach, the geometry or shape is designed concurrently with materials selection, and the selection of materials is highly dependent on the manufacturing process.

Benefits In Terms Of Cost And Mechanical And Physical Properties

In automotive component development, CE is adopted mainly for enhancement of quality, reduced time to market and reduced cost. In carrying out the design of automotive component s, various IT tools such as CAD, rapid prototyping, FEA, expert system and mould flow analysis are widely adopted. In this paper, a study of CE in the development of an automotive composite component is presented by emphasizing on the use of the various IT tools previously mentioned. The integrated nature of this research affirms the concept of CE. It was pointed out by Meyer (2008) that CE is essential in polymeric composite design because of the way in which a ...