Michael Golek looks at a new development in automotive painting which eliminates the necessity for a separate primer layer in automotive OEM coatings.
During the primary task of driving, the main information input is visual.
Not too long ago, when the instrument panel on a popular car consisted of just five or six instruments and five or six auxiliary (secondary) controls to operate the radio and heating system, the idea of making a hand gesture in a designated space to operate one of these controls would rightly have been seen as an unnecessary extravagance at best.
Dassault Systèmes recently announced the release of Version 6.6 of Abaqus, its advanced finite element analysis software suite within the Simulia product portfolio.
It seems that there is always scope to increase the efficiency of the internal combustion engine by small increments, yet there remains a desire to find the next step change in efficiency for automotive powerplants.
Engineers at Honda’s Tochigi R&D Center use ABAQUS software as a key enabler in the development of continuously variable transmissions (CVTs).
Automotive manufacturers naturally want to maximise the return on their substantial investment in vehicle engineering. Alistair Rae investigates the way badge engineering has given way to shared vehicle platforms, common parts and now versatile vehicle architectures.
Seven years ago Damian Harty, chief engineer, dynamics, at Prodrive, started thinking about a vehicle that would provide the agility of a motorbike but without the drawbacks of poor weather protection and vulnerability in the event of an accident. The resultant concept, referred to as the Naro car, was unveiled earlier in 2004 (Fig.1), but it is not the only narrow vehicle currently proposed as a solution to city traffic problems.
Because of the negative impacts on the environment caused by increasing mobility, European funding has been made available to develop a new vehicle that will both reduce pollution and ease traffic congestion.
One of the most difficult issues in the disposal of vehicles is wire harness recycling. Due to the wide variety of materials contained it has proven uneconomical to separate and recycle each component in the harness.
Several alternative technologies have been proposed to replace the car's internal combustion engine; some companies are already marketing hybrid gasoline/electric hybrids, though these have their shortcomings. Jon Severn reports on a mild hybrid that makes no compromises, yet it drastically cuts fuel consumption and emissions.
A new technology from MCP that allows complex parts to be vacuum cast in nylon for the first time has been designed to meet the growing demand for prototype parts in final production materials.
When you pick up your new vehicle at the dealership, you expect it to be free of exterior finish defects. Misty Bower examines how automotive makers at Ford set out to achieve that 'factory fresh look' no matter where in the world they are located.
Lotus Engineering is releasing the latest versions of its CAE packages. There are three PC-based simulation products available from Lotus Engineering Software:
