• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.58-64
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• 2008

An aluminum radius rod using rheo-forging method has been developed for heavy commercial vehicles to decrease vehicle unsprung weight. To design the shape of the rod, structural simulations are performed using two load cases. To evaluate durability performance of the rods, a test system which has simultaneous 3 axes actuating system is developed. And 3 axes durability test conditions are established based on vehicle field tests. Using the test systems and the conditions, the durability test is carried out and the rods have passed the test conditions of 700,000 cycles. The weight of a developed aluminum radius rod is 4.2kg and it was drastically reduced by 48.8 percent in comparison with the weight of a steel radius rod.