Lifetime Assessment Criteria and Failure Analysis for the Clutch Coil in an Automotive Air Conditioner

자동차용 에어컨 클러치 코일의 수명평가 기준과 고장해석

The clutch coil mounted on the automotive air conditioner is an important part which actuates the clutch to connect or disconnect the pulley and the compressor according to the climate control condition in an automobile. Here, it is generally required that the clutch coil should ensure the long term durability requirement, such as a warranty for the 10 years of field operation or 160,000 km driving, especially in a brand new item, and so forth. However, some difficulties have arisen in restoring its credibility, since domestic specifications for the part have not been yet unified. In order to ensure the reliability, test methods and assessment criteria should be standardized. Moreover, assessed lifetime under specific conditions and potential failure analysis would be important. In this study, lifetime test specifications for the clutch coil have been reviewed and methodological suggestions are provided to ensure reliability, utilizing a quality function deployment through the potential failure mode effect analysis.