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Experiences on solid modelling for automotive design
Technical Paper
1995-25-0090
Sector:
Event:
ISATA 1995
Language:
English
Abstract
Design in the automotive industry is a complex task, where
rework is commonly needed to accomplish often conflicting
requirements upon positioning the components in optimal relation to
each other.
Solid modelling tools are effective in these tasks. However,
several difficulties commonly arise in practice, because the files
sizes become extremely large when too many details are modeled.
On the other hand, incomplete information may lead to wrong
decisions when not enough details are modeled. These problems
become crucial if the computational facilities available to the
designer are limited.
Experiences obtained during a joint project developed between
Mercedes Benz of Mexico (MBM) and The Monterrey Institute of
Technology (ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico) in designing a new chassis
for a suburban bus with rear motor are presented in this paper.
A solid models database of the components required for the
design of a bus chassis was developed by a team of undergraduate,
graduate students and faculty member together with a design
engineer of MBM under the advice of the Engineering Department of
MBM.
With this solid models database the design of the assembly was
carried out and a real prototype was built at The Integrated
Manufacturing systems Center (CSIM) at ITESM, Monterrey Campus.
Rework was minimized and a new bus chassis was developed in
record time, which will be tested in the next phase of the project.
This solid models database may be used in new projects with
increased effectiveness.
Learning how to manage the level of complexity of the
computational files created throughout the modelling stage of the
project became one of the most important issues since the work was
performed on a software platform originally conceived for personal
computers.