Optimum structural design of seat frames for commercial vehicles

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-142
Author(s):  
Yahya Işık ◽  
Mücahit Göle

Abstract Seat frames in commercial vehicles generally consist of components such as foot brackets, seats, back, head restraints and fasteners. In addition to mechanical properties, comfort is another important parameter. This study aims to reduce the cost of a commercial vehicle by means of alternative materials and design changes in the passenger seat frame. For this purpose, three different methods were used to optimize seat back pipes: reducing the cross-section, using thinner sections in the seat frame via alternative material and making design changes in the foot brackets. In the methods applied, mitigation and cost reductions were achieved. The suitability of the design changes in the seat through geometric changes was confirmed by international ECE R14 test results and finite element method analyses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7246
Author(s):  
Julius Moritz Berges ◽  
Georg Jacobs ◽  
Sebastian Stein ◽  
Jonathan Sprehe

Locally load-optimized fiber-based composites, the so-called tailored textiles (TT), offer the potential to reduce weight and cost compared to conventional fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). However, the design of TT has a higher complexity compared to FRP. Current approaches, focusing on solving this complexity for multiple objectives (cost, weight, stiffness), require great effort and calculation time, which makes them unsuitable for serial applications. Therefore, in this paper, an approach for the efficient creation of simplified TT concept designs is presented. By combining simplified models for structural design and cost estimation, the most promising concepts, regarding the cost, weight, and stiffness of TT parts, can be identified. By performing a parameter study, the cost, weight, and stiffness optima of a sample part compared to a conventional FRP component can be determined. The cost and weight were reduced by 30% for the same stiffness. Applying this approach at an early stage of product development reduces the initial complexity of the subsequent detailed engineering design, e.g., by applying methods from the state of the art.



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3535
Author(s):  
Byung-Ju Jeon ◽  
Byung-Soo Kim

The Korean government proposed a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37% compared to business-as-usual levels by 2030 and launched the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED) certification system. The certification requires meeting the required score and material selection with a secured economy and construction efficiency. However, most buildings only focus on obtaining the certification scores instead of choosing economical materials with high construction efficiency. This research focused on developing a material selection model that considers both the construction efficiency and economy of the materials and the acquisition of material and resource evaluation scores from the G-SEED certification. This research, therefore, analyzed actual data to automate the material selection and compare alternatives to using a genetic algorithm to obtain optimized alternatives. This model proposes an alternative to constructability and economy when the required score and material information is entered. When the model was applied to actual cases, the result revealed a reduction in construction costs of about 37% compared to the cost with the traditional methods. The material selection model from this research can benefit construction project owners in terms of cost reduction, designers in terms of structural design time, and constructors in terms of construction efficiency



Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1827
Author(s):  
Mengyao Li ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Ting Zhang ◽  
Yong Zuo ◽  
Ke Xiao ◽  
...  

The cost-effective conversion of low-grade heat into electricity using thermoelectric devices requires developing alternative materials and material processing technologies able to reduce the currently high device manufacturing costs. In this direction, thermoelectric materials that do not rely on rare or toxic elements such as tellurium or lead need to be produced using high-throughput technologies not involving high temperatures and long processes. Bi2Se3 is an obvious possible Te-free alternative to Bi2Te3 for ambient temperature thermoelectric applications, but its performance is still low for practical applications, and additional efforts toward finding proper dopants are required. Here, we report a scalable method to produce Bi2Se3 nanosheets at low synthesis temperatures. We studied the influence of different dopants on the thermoelectric properties of this material. Among the elements tested, we demonstrated that Sn doping resulted in the best performance. Sn incorporation resulted in a significant improvement to the Bi2Se3 Seebeck coefficient and a reduction in the thermal conductivity in the direction of the hot-press axis, resulting in an overall 60% improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit of Bi2Se3.



Author(s):  
Leila Ladani ◽  
Lalit Roy

Additive Layer Fabrication, in particular Electron Beam Additive Fabrication (EBAF), has recently drawn much attention for its special usability to fabricate intricately designed parts as a whole. It not only increases the production rate which reduces the production lead time but also reduces the cost by minimizing the amount of waste material to a great extent. Ti6Al4V is the most common type of material that is currently being fabricated using EBAF technique. This material has been used in aerospace industry for several reasons such as excellent mechanical properties, low density, great resistance to corrosion, and non-magnetism. The effects of build direction of layers (namely, addition of layers along one of the x, y & z directions with respect to the build table) and the anisotropy effect caused by it has not been explored vigorously. This anisotropy effect has been investigated in this work. Different mechanical properties such as Yield Strength (YS), Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), and Modulus of Elasticity (E) of these three types of Ti6Al4V are determined using tensile tests and are compared with literature. The tensile test results show that YS and UTS for flat-build samples have distinguishably higher values than those of the side-build and top-build samples.



Author(s):  
Jacqueline B. Barnett

The application of ergonomics is important when considering the built environment. In order to create an environment where form follows function, a detailed understanding of the tasks performed by the individuals who will live and work in the facility is required. Early involvement in the project is key to maximizing the benefit of ergonomics. At Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, this early intervention was embraced during the design process of a behavioural care unit for aggressive patients. The ergonomist was involved in three phases of design; user needs analysis, block schematics and detailed design. The user needs and characteristics were established using a combination of focus groups, interviews, direct observation, task analysis and critique of current working environments. The challenge was to present the information to the design team in a useful manner. The format chosen was a modification of Userfit (Poulson 1996) that outlined the various characteristics of the patient group and the design consequences with “what does this mean for me” statements. During the block schematics phase an iterative design process was used to ensure that the ergonomic principles and the user needs were incorporated into the design. Ergonomic input was used in determining the room sizes and layout and to ensure work processes were considered. Simple mock-ups and anthropometric data assisted in illustrating the need for design changes. Examples that highlight the areas of greatest impact of ergonomic intervention include the patient bathrooms, showers and tub room. Significant changes were made to the design to improve the safety of the work and living space of the end users. One of the greatest challenges was having an appreciation for the individual goals of the team members. Ensuring there was adequate space for equipment and staff often resulted in recommendations for increased space. This in turn would increase the cost of the project. The architect and, later in the project, the engineer had goals of bringing the project in on budget. The final design was very much a team effort and truly die result of an iterative process. The sum of the individual contributions could not match the combined efforts. It was only through the ergonomic contributions in this early design phase that the needs of the staff, patients and families could be so well represented. The success of the iterative process provides the foundation for bringing ergonomics considerations into the early design stages of future projects.



2014 ◽  
Vol 644-650 ◽  
pp. 381-384
Author(s):  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Hao Zhou ◽  
Guo Song Liu

In order to improve the efficiency of auto parts distribution logistics, to lower the cost of auto production in transportation logistics, and to reduce accidents, in this paper it is designed that an automatic guided vehicle control system to replace the manned tractors in the distribution sites. The system is equipped with an infrared homing device that can ensure the automated guided vehicle (AGV) along a predetermined route automatic driving at a given distribution information, without the needs to manually guided. Test results show that the circuit performance of AGV control system is stable to ensure the accuracy of the tracking in the practical application, and the mean absolute error of the tracking is less than 0.04m.



2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Upendra Malla ◽  
Krishna M. Karri

Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) sizing and cost estimation has become a challenging task at the early stages of offshore field development. During the early stages of field development designer needs to size and estimate cost in order to decide feasibility of the project. This paper describes a step by step method used to size and estimate the cost of a new built (or) converted FPSO based on basic engineering, existing FPSO data and corresponding metocean criteria for a particular location. This step by step approach covers FPSO sizing, hull structural design, mooring sizing, topsides support design and steel renewal using offshore classification rules and regulations. FPSO cost is estimated based on the design particulars (i.e. hull weights, FPSO particulars, mooring sizes etc.) and current market unit rates. This approach is an effective means to size and estimate cost of an FPSO at early stages of field development which saves overall time and cost for a client.



2014 ◽  
Vol 875-877 ◽  
pp. 1454-1457
Author(s):  
Pan Hu ◽  
Yi He Zhang ◽  
Feng Shan Zhou ◽  
Yue Wang ◽  
Meng Fu ◽  
...  

A novel anti-caking material (E-Oil) was prepared from waste animal/plant oil and triethanolamine by catalytic synthesis in this study. The E-Oil was analyzed by FTIR and the anti-caking effect of anti-caking materials was described by caking ratio. The FTIR results showed that the reaction product of Waste Animal/Plant Oil and Hydramine was surfactant with anti-caking effect. The anti-caking test results indicated that E-Oil made the caking ratio of compound fertilizer decrease from 39.75% to 16.33%. Taking the cost into consideration, the optimal fraction of E Oil was 5‰ and the caking ratio could reach 16.33%, which could approximately meet the application requirements.





2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e28101018564
Author(s):  
Igor Nonato Almeida Pereira ◽  
Newton Paulo de Souza Falcão ◽  
Consuelo Alves da Frota

The replacement of conventional materials used in hot asphalt mixtures with others of good technique and lower cost and environmental impact has motivated research in this area of knowledge in recent decades. The researches should be expanded in the scope of engineering, given that it contributes considerably to the transformation of spaces and raw material. In this context, thermoelectric ashes, which are residues from the production of electric energy, appear as an alternative to replace the stone powder input which contributes negatively to the environment considering that it comes from the blasting of rocks. This work aims to compare the cost of producing traditional asphalt concrete (reference) to asphalt compositions containing 5,15% of alternative material characterized by stone dust. There was a saving of R$ 0.21 per ton of AC machining, consisting of thermoelectric ash as a partial substitute (5.15%) for stone powder, which represents significant savings in a practical context.



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