Monday, October 10, 2011
Car Body Design Parametric Design Methods
Using this methodology, engineers can define the frame of a new car body, respecting the company standards. The principal benefit is the reduction of the design development time as the modification process is optimized. Furthermore the design history is recorded and the same parametric models can be re-used for several vehicle projects. Elasis and FIAT Auto started to test parametric and associative (P/A) techniques at least 6 years ago [1], in order to create some archetypes of an entire Fiat vehicle. Fiat was one of the first automotive companies to test P/A features in the development of a new car. The project goal was to develop a new P/A design methodology in order to: • reduce modification time during the development of a new car body; • reuse the same parametric models for future platforms. Features are physical o logical elements of an object that an engineer can use during the definition of the geometrical model of the component. Examples of feature are through hole, slot, pocket, chamfer and so on. Therefore features can be seen like a sequence of geometric operations (building blocks) that has an engineering meaning for product definition. The main expected benefits from these systems are the optimisation of the user productivity in modeling and the reduction of the modification time. CAR BODY DESIGN METHODS. The methodology was based on P/A CAD but also on the concept of archetype. An archetype is a set of logical and parametric features of an object or system that can be used to build the relative CAD model [5]. The component level is managed by engineer that has the responsibility to develop the relative group of nodes and beams, with specific archetypes. Company emphasis is focused on modifications management because it affects on product development time and, consequently, on the process flexibility related to styling modifications, continuous refinement and new concepts implementation. In that way, each modification can be executed in a short time, respecting all the product and process constraints.
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