Past GDIS™ Presentations

Joe Riggsby discussed Honda’s 2019 Acura RDX world’s first inner and outer door ring system.

Over the past two decades the hot press forming, or press-hardening of steel (PHS) has become an important technology enabler for meeting today’s safety requirements. Its ability to do this while at the same time lightweighting body structures has been its advantage. The widely used steel grade for hot forming is the boron-added steel 22MnB5 (0.22%C-1.2%Mn), achieving nominal strengths of approximately 1.5GPa.

Future fuel economy and safety regulation increases are demanding even more aggressive vehicle mass reductions without jeopardizing cost targets. New applications and technologies with tailored strengths and novel production methods are needed.

This presentation shares the development and accomplishments of a one-piece hot stamped door ring and novel laser cutting methods on the 2018 Ram 1500 Pickup Truck.

The elevated strength of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) leads to great challenges for the sheet metal processing, one of which is hole punching operation. A comprehensive study was conducted to investigate the tool shape and punching configuration effects on force reduction, hole dimensional accuracy, edge qualities, etc. Three grades of AHSS (DP1180, DP980 and DP590) were tested using flat, conical and rooftop shaped punch respectively with three cutting clearances for each material. The punching force coefficient is calculated based on the experimental measured data, and it indicates a negative correlation with the material strength. The punching force was significantly reduced benefited from progressive cutting mechanism introduced by rooftop punch but such punch shape can lead to dimensional inaccuracy issues. Conical punch leads to the uniform diametrical enlargement according to the measurement. To uncover the mechanism of the hole dimensional change and various cutting modes, a series of finite element simulations were established for numerical investigation. The tooling effects on cutting edge quality and associated tool protection was also investigated.

Use of press hardened parts in Body in White (BIW) structures has evolved in recent years to encompass wide range of part complexity, size and mechanical properties. In addition, the number of components per vehicle has also increased pushing demand for more capital investments. Suppliers of press hardened parts need to accommodate these changes while staying competitive. Advanced design of heat treatment furnace has to offer a unique furnace design that provides flexibility to handle future part sizes minimizes down time to increase line utilization and offers a unique solution to produce tailor tempered parts for crash performance.
This paper presents advanced innovative design of continuous roller furnace. These types of furnaces are generally used in hot forming lines. Design is focused on optimal heating layout, modern drives of rollers, new design and other items respecting the optimal technological and technical aspects. Also the technological functions like the dew point temperature regulation, oxygen rate regulation. All results are based on the theoretical background of heat and mass transfer, con-firmed by numerical Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis. Based on the long-time experiences with manufacturing and development of the machinery for the automotive industry, new roller furnaces were designed using modern methods including the FEM analyses for numerical simulations of heating processes and heating power distribution. The numerical solution of many mathematical problems involves the combination of external and internal conditions and different technological processes.

Background:
I-CAR, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, is a not-for-profit education, knowledge, and solutions organization whose vision is that “Every person in the collision repair industry has the information, knowledge, and skills to perform complete, safe, and quality repairs for the ultimate benefit of the consumer. ” In June of 2014, I-CAR launched its Repairability Technical Support (RTS) initiative. This initiative is designed to support the collision repair inter-industry and to address gaps in collision repair information, tools, and processes.

Approach:
The I-CAR RTS initiative is comprised of four key elements: the RTS website; Repairability Summits; OEM & Industry Linking Pin Mechanism; and OEM and tool and equipment Technical Advisory Councils (TAC). The RTS website offers repair professionals tens of thousands of pages of collision repair information, including our Ask I-CAR feature.

Findings:
Recently, the collision repair industry witnessed a monumental example of why following OEM repair procedures is required for complete, safe, and quality repairs. Failure to follow OEM repair procedures resulted in a multi-million-dollar settlement for a couple that was badly injured in an improperly repaired vehicle. OEM repair information, and its importance, is the most frequently discussed issue facing repairers today. Information on material types, repairability guidelines, and attachment methods have rocketed to the forefront of every collision repair conference and publication across the country.

Conclusion:
Last year, I-CAR discussed the need for improved material identification, repairability guidelines, and standardization of repair information. This year’s presentation will expand on that conversation and offer insight into how the steel market can support the development of best-in-class repairability guidelines and procedures to support the I-CAR Vision of complete, safe, quality repairs for the ultimate benefit of the consumer. During this session, I-CAR will compare and contrast several examples of the types of information that is currently available to the collision repair inter-industry.

Florian Kiefer from TRUMPF and Brandon Reinhold from Comau discuss lasers in automotive – precision and flexibility for advanced manufacturing.