Squeak and Rattle Prevention in the Design Phase Using a Pragmatic Approach

Squeaks and Rattles (S&R) today are one of the main issues leading to a down ranking in quality perception of interiors in vehicles. Being annoyed by these types of noises, customers are driving up warranty and goodwill cost to many billion per vehicle model on lifetime. Still most of the problems are solved by automotive manufacturers and suppliers after they appear in hardware testing. Usually expensive solutions like felts and oil/grease are selected to solve the problem. However prevention is the key to eliminate unwanted Squeaks and Rattles early in the design phase based on CAD data and material information. This paper shows a pragmatic approach to support the design engineer to create a virtually S&R free CAD-model.