Abstract
Recently, automotive companies have invested in vehicle weight reduction and clean car development because of oil price rises and environmental problems. In particular, USA car makers have developed the vehicle spending 1 liter per 34km complying with PNGV(Partnership for a new generation of veh icle) and Europe car makers have developed the vehicle spending 3 liters per 100km. The USA gover nment announced New CAFE(Corporate Average Fuel Economy)” in order to boost production of mo re fuel effective cars in 2009. According to the policy, it will be restricted to sell the car which spends more than 1 liter per 35.5MPG (equal to 15.1km) by 2016.
To satisfy the current situations on automotive market, hydroforming technology has widely adapted vehicle structures such as front sub frame (is equal to engine cradle), chassis frame, A pillar, radiator support, etc. However, automotive companies have to consider formability and performance to impro ve and maximize the benefit from this technology in advance of detail design. The paper deals with o ne of the vehicle weight reduction methods using tube hydroforming technology and platform commo nality in front suspension. FEA simulation is also introduced to evaluate hydro-formability and NVH performance at the beginning of design stage which is the best way to reduce the failure cost.
Keywords: Hydroforming, Front Suspension, FEA simulation