The participation of the PSA Finite Element Engineering (Brazilian Structural Simulation Engineering) in the vehicle weight reduction proposals in order to reduce pollutants emissions levels

A really important characteristic of the OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that arrived in Brazil during the last decade is that all of them launched vehicles models that were conceived, designed and developed abroad, normally in the Company Headquarters. The first effect of this tendency affects certain technical specifications such as raw materials or even those components that were not validated for the local market conditions. The majority of the technical specifications are over dimensioned in relation to current local regulations in the Brazilian Country. According to Pascoal (2007), another effect is that these vehicles have an end of the product life cycles sooner than the Brazilian branch offices. This condition implies that even after the end of production of these vehicles in the European factories, these models will continue in the production line at the Brazilian Factories for several years (in some cases). The production continuation of these vehicle models in South America have stimulated the creation of a local procedure inside the OEM's, allied with the use of new available numerical methods - most modern of what the existing ones at the time of conception of these vehicles in Europe: the study of simulations applying newer and cheaper raw materials (less thicker or lighter), but that still preserve the main technical specifications defined by the OEM or by the effective regulations in the country. The main purpose of the application of these new technical proposals is to turn these vehicles even more economically profitable during its extension of commercialization for the local market, but, mainly, to reduce the weight of these vehicles aiming to consequently reduce the pollutants emissions levels. In this context, this work has as objective to present some practical examples of these numerical simulations of the vehicles that are in serial production at PSA Peugeot Citroen Factory in Porto Real, Rio de Janeiro, exploring the main impacts of the technical proposals for weight & cost reduction.