Optimization of the Side Swing Door Closing Effort

In the automotive industry, a lot of attention has been paid to the effort required for opening/closing the doors, and for a good reason. The door closing and opening effort creates an impression in the customer's mind about the engineering and quality of the vehicle even before he or she steps into it. Although this is such an important issue, the precise quantification of what constitutes a good performance target for the door opening/closing effort, has remained somewhat elusive. Thumb rules and best practices abound in the automotive industry.

Some of the rules and best practices have focused on setting certain targets for the energy required to shut the door from a small open position (around 10-15 degrees). This target can be misleading. The purpose of this paper is to present an ADAMS® simulation model that includes all the different components of the door design. The complete opening/closing motion is a result of the interaction of the different components of the door closing system, such as the latch, weather seal, energy loss due to air-binding effect, the inclination of the hinge axes, check-link etc. The analysis simulates the entire opening/closing motion and the energy/force required during this motion. Analyzing the details of the door opening/closing motion of different vehicles, and associating this information to the customer dissatisfaction figures from sources like JD Power quality survey, enables us to more precisely quantify the target performance that will result in greater customer satisfaction.