These days backhoe loader have become main part of construction equipment vehicles. The main function of backhoe is to dig ditches to lay pipes and underground cable, set up foundations for buildings and create drainage systems. During these operations, many failures are observed in backhoe loader structure/parts. With the help of Accelerated structural durability testing, life of backhoe loader & its part can be estimated; through which we can understand different failure modes. The real time data was collected during various operations which includes pit digging, duck walk, ditch climbing, levelling, dozing, piling, truck loading etc. We have used software based approach to process the strain, displacement and other data collected during real time operation to create the duty cycle. The same duty cycle was simulated in the lab condition using servo hydraulic actuators. Paper will discuss the study of engineering results in terms of strain & displacement at critical joints between real time operation & simulation of same in lab.

We are currently in the age of developing Autonomous Vehicles (AV). Never before in history, the environment has been as conducive as today for these developments to come together to deliver a mass produced autonomous car for use by general public on the roads. Several enhancements in hardware, software, standards and even business models are paving the way for rapid development of AVs, bringing them closer to production reality. Safety is an indispensable consideration when it comes to transportation products, and ground vehicle development is no different. We have several established standards. When it comes to Autonomous Vehicle development, an important consideration is ISO 26262 for, Automotive Functional Safety. Going from generic frameworks such as Failure Mode and Effects Analyses (FMEA) and Hazard and operability study (HAZOP) to Functional Safety, Safety of Intended Functionality, and Automotive Safety Integrity Levels specific is a natural progression. This, in specific to AV development context with a renewed perspective is the need of the hour. The fundamental assumption of a human driver being part of the vehicle, considered in…

Digital Twins for Prognostic Profiling Authors: Sreeram Mohan*, Painuri Thukaram**, Panduranga Rao*** Objective / Question: Ability to have least failures in products on the field with minimum effort from the manufacturers is a major area of focus driven by Industry 4.0 initiatives. Amidst traditional methods of performing system / subsystem level tests often does not enable the complete coverage of a machine health performance predictions. This paper highlights a workable workflow that could be used as a template while considering system design especially employing Digital Twins that help in mimicking real-life scenarios early in the design cycle to increase product’s reliability as well as tend to near zero defects. Methodology: With currently available disruptive technologies , systems are integrated multi-domain 'mechatronics' systems operating in closed-loop/close-interaction. This poses great challenges to system health monitoring as failure of any component can trigger catastrophic system failures. It may be the reason that component failures, as per some aerospace reports, are found to be major contributing factors to aircraft loss-of-control. Essentially, it is either too expensive or impossible to…

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Accelerated artificial weathering performance has been always observed as critical and most important factor for durability prediction of colour and resin for a coating system. Photo oxidation of resin is the phenomenon behind coating’s ageing. Though accelerated weathering tests protocols are widely used in industry, they are very costly and still very time consuming. One automotive grade accelerated testing can go as long as 8 months duration. METHODOLOGY (maximum 150 words) Photo oxidation value (POV) is proportionate to the degradation of the resin material used in coating. During the accelerated weathering POV is measured for the coating at stipulated interval during initial phase and trend is plotted for deterioration verses weathering test duration. POV can be analysed with the help of FTIR analysis to observe bond absorption energy and bond separation energy in the resin system. This trend can be extrapolated to predict the weathering performance of coating. This method can save huge time in predicting the weathering performance and decision making. RESULTS (maximum 150 words) Photo oxidation degradation study was performed on…

Currently Aerospace manufacturing industry is taking initiatives to implement the Process Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (pFMEA) tool for its critical Aerospace Manufacturing and Assembly suppliers, by implementing Aerospace Standards, in an effort to create a synergy between the End user customers, Original Equipment manufacturers and the suppliers, for ensuring increased safety, quality, reliability for the Aircraft parts and components produced by them. The main aim is to use this concept as a Process Risk Management tool for Identification, Assessment, Mitigation, Control and Prevention of risks associated with Designs and Manufacturing. This method is quite different from conventional FMEA methodology as it focuses on an integrated approach of linking the process flow diagram, followed by a PFMEA again linked with a Control plan to identify and implement controls for measuring and monitoring the process risks. This can identify the manufacturing system’s area of focus of weakness or opportunity, at early stages of production and thereby minimize Cost of Poor Quality by being aware of the risks associated with the increased occurrence of both Internal and…

Intermittence occurs randomly in time, place, amplitude and duration. The very nature of the failure mode suggests that the ability to detect and further isolate the intermittence root cause is based on detection SENSITIVITY and PROBABILITY rather than conventional methods concentrating on ohmic measurement accuracy. Simply put, you can’t detect an intermittent event until it occurs, and then you might have limited opportunities to catch it on the specific circuit when it does. Trying to measure fractions of a milliohm, scanning one circuit at a time, is ineffective for this particular failure mode. In this paper we will outline the problem of intermittence and its testing difficulties. More importantly, we will describe the unique equipment and process which has produced overwhelming success in Intermittence / NFF resolution and MTBF extension. Working with Total Quality Systems, (TQS) Ogden, Utah, we implemented our team-developed overhaul system called IFDIS (Intermittent Fault Detection and Isolation System) which incorporates all the necessary testing procedures and technological capabilities that are proving to be critical to the resolution of the chronic intermittent…

The intent of this standard is to establish a framework to assure that all evaporators for R-744 and R-1234yf mobile air conditioning (MAC) systems shall meet appropriate testing and labeling requirements. SAE J639 requires an assement to be performed to minimize reasonable risks in MAC systems. The evaporator (as designed and manufactured) shall be part of that risk assessment, and it is the responsibility of the vehicle manufacturer to assure all relevant aspects of the evaporator are included. It is the responsibility of all vehicle or evaporator manufacturers to comply with the standards of this document at a minimum. (Substitution of specific test procedures by vehicle manufactures that correlate well to field return data is acceptable.) As appropriate, this standard can be used as a guide to support risk assessments. With regard to certification, most vehicle manufacturers have established formal production part approval processes (PPAP) where compliance certification is established and formally documented. For an evaporator manufacturer of non-original equipment parts (or a vehicle manufacturer that does not have a formal part compliance certification process),…

This Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) provides general characteristics, requirements, and design data to be recommended for inclusion in a procurement technical specification of an electromechanical actuator (EMA), including its control and monitoring.

This Recommended Practice applies to commercial vehicles equipped with air disc brakes and above 4536 kg of Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. Other assessments on the friction material or rotor related to wear, durability, correlation to product life, noise, judder, compliance to specific regulations, etc., are not part of this RP (Recommended Practice).

In this article, a framework for efficient strength analysis of large and complex automotive composite structures is presented. This article focuses on processes and methods that are compliant with common practice in the automotive industry. The proposed framework uses efficient shell models for identification of hot spots, automated remodelling and analysis of found hot spots with high-fidelity models and finally an automated way of post-processing the detailed models. The process is developed to allow verification of a large number of load cases in large models and still consider all potential failure modes. The process is focused on laminated composite primary structures. This article highlights the challenges and tools for setting up this framework.