An automotive supplier was looking to reduce costs and improve product quality by using plastics instead of metals. To do so, they needed to predict the ultimate load of short fiber reinforced plastic (SFRP) parts while considering anisotropy due to the fiber orientation. In order to optimize the structural performance of their product made with …
Elastomers – widely available and low cost – are ubiquitous. They have a long list of properties that make them extremely useful and versatile. For example, they have excellent damping and energy absorption characteristics, flexibility, resiliency, long service life, ability to seal against moisture, heat, and pressure, non-toxic properties, moldability, and variable stiffness. Among elastomers, …
Race-Tec Sealing supplies a large proportion of constant velocity CV boots into motorsports and for high-performance military vehicles. Sports cars, military and off road vehicles – which are often steered at sharper angles, at high speeds, and in the case of the latter, on uneven ground – are quite demanding on CV boots. The boots must …
Guardian Automotive, one of the largest global producers of flat glass, was looking to optimize the manufacturing process of car windows. The purpose was twofold: to meet the time constraints of car manufacturers, and to increase internal efficiency. Charles Courlander, a senior development engineer at Guardian, was part of the team responsible for developing techniques …
An aero parts manufacturer needed to successfully drop test a flexible fluid container from a height of 80 feet in order to certify the part. Inaccuracies in the predictions led to 5 failed drop tests, each of which cost approximately $55k. The continued failure of the expensive physical tests prompted the company to acquire Marc …
Intake and exhaust systems contribute significantly to the total noise level of ground vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles, heavy machinery) or any other tool equipped with combustion engines such as chain saws, for example. From a general perspective, it is possible to identify three reasons for studying the acoustic performance of these systems: Noise regulations are becoming more and …
Recent Comments