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Optimise your designs |
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SUV Lightweighting Using Affordable Composites
A Hybrid Solution:
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In this project the goal was to maximise the torsional stiffness of an SUV body structure by the replacement of a pair of C-pillar reinforcement panels. The new composite parts would replace aluminium pressings but had to remain at the same weight and crucially be cost competitive.
The developed solution was a short fibre carbon filled PA6 injection moulding which incorporated local continuous fibre reinforcements. Predictive analysis was used to optimise the location, extent and layup (fibre direction) of the reinforcements so that the minimum amount of ‘premium’ material was used whilst achieving a significant performance uplift. The result was an improvement of 7% on the overall torsional stiffness of the vehicle body structure. With the new parts and process, production rates were achievable, cost was comparable, and there was no weight penalty. |
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BAC Mono Chassis Development
High Performance Steel Structure
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Working with BAC, this project aimed to re-engineer the Mono supercar’s space frame, tubular chassis using a niobium enhanced steel. Engenuity started with data acquisition, instrumenting the car during high speed testing to benchmark existing chassis performance.
Using Engenuity’s on site material laboratory, the niobium microalloyed steel was characterised with material cards generated for accurate simulation. Engenuity’s engineering team then used their decades of experience of race car and supercar development to optimise the chassis against multiple load cases. This expertise led to a mass reduction of 18% from a chassis that had already been designed for minimal weight by automotive experts. Achieved working within strict constraints in terms of packaging and manufacturing tooling, the new chassis also maintained durability and torsional stiffness while improving roll over protection. |
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