• Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2011

The flat type automotive cross members with high strength steel have advantages in light weight and fewer parts compared to the hump type cross members. But the complex part shape of the flat type cross member and the poor formability of high strength steel make it difficult to form the parts without forming defects, such as splits and wrinkles. The purpose of this study is to develop the flat type automotive cross member with high strength steel. For that purpose, drawing processes are evaluated using PAM-$STAMP^{TM}$ and proper draw die and blank designs are proposed. Using the proposed die and blank design, the flat type upper and lower cross member could be formed successfully without forming defects.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.481-485
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• 2008

The subframe type rear suspension consisting of a side member and a front/rear cross member is widely used in a medium car and full car. In the small car case, the beam of tubular type without independent suspension system is used to reduce manufacturing cost. In this study, a subframe type rear suspension by hydroforming has been developed. In designing suspension, a driving stability and durability should be considered as an important factor for the performance improvement, respectively. Thus, we focus on increasing the stiffness of suspension and decreasing the maximum stress affecting a durability cycle life. Several optimization design techniques such as shape, size, and topology optimization are implemented to meet these requirements. The shapes of rear suspension obtained from optimization are formed by using hydroforming process. Through commercial software based on the finite element, the superiority of this design method is demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.205-208
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• 2008

Generally, there are several types in rear suspension. The rear suspension of subframe type consisting of side member and front/rear cross member is widely used in a medium car and full car. In the small car case, the beam of tubular type without independent suspension system is used to reduce manufacturing cost. The optimized rear suspension of subframe type using hydroforming method has been developed in this study. In designing suspension, the driving stability and durability performance should be considered as an important factor. The stability is related to dynamic frequency and durability is connected with stress analysis of structure. We focus on increasing the stiffness of suspension and decreasing the maximum stress relating to durability cycle life. For making use of the merits of hydroforming which is possible to make the bead, tube expansion, and feeding in desiring position, several optimization design techniques such as shape, size, and topology optimization are proposed. This optimization scheme based on the sensitivity can provide distinguished performance improvement in using hydroforming. Through commercial software based on the finite element, the superiority of this design method is demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.353-356
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• 2008

Tool design is carried out for a press forming of a cross member in the rear suspension assembly based on the result of the finite element analysis. The analysis simulates the two-stage stamping process with the initial design and it fully reveals the unfavorable mechanism which develops inferiorities during forming. In this paper, a new design guideline is proposed to modify the process and tool shapes for a single-stage forming process. With the improved tool design, this study fabricates prototypes that satisfy the durability requirement.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.555-561
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• 2008

This paper describes an e-Engineering framework to support collaborative design of automotive suspension systems developed at KIMM(Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials). The e-Engineering framework is proposed and developed on the base of the multi-layered software agents including engineering task agent which is generated from the domain knowledge of experts. The developed framework is aim to widely spread application to the small and medium enterprises by adopting open source technologies such as JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) and by using the independent characteristics related with applicant H/W and 81W system. This framework can provide an integrated design environment to support distributed personnel, design activities and engineering resources during product development process. For the validation of the system's applicability and efficiency, the several practical design processes for automotive suspension systems of RR/FR lower arms and RR cross member are applied and discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1320-1325
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• 2008

In the manufacture of automobile suspension modules at a company as parts supplier, the design process includes the detail design and the design modification via structural and fatigue durability analyses considering PoF(physics of failure) of their weldments that are repeated more than four times sequentially. The approval of the design and the release of final drawings follows. For the suspension modules, e.g. control arms and cross member, the man-hours per worker required in the process outlined above can reach as high as 1,414hours. Application of the developed integrated design system can reduce the man-hours of 1,004. In comparison with the conventional design process, this integrated design system reduces the required time by about 40%. If expense is taken into account, a savings of approximately $192,000 is estimated, assuming the design process accounts for 1.5% of total sales for the parts supplier