Abstract
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study indicates that a typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) establishing fleet-average emissions targets of 95g & 175g CO2 per kilometer for passenger cars & light commercial vehicles respectively. In view of the same, Global Automotive industry tends to modify the existing components by new & advanced material technologies due to the stringent CO2 emission norms. Automotive industry is looking for lightweight materials in order to reduce overall weight of vehicle, to mitigate challenging emission norms for passenger car application. In line with the same requirements, heavy steel connecting rods can be replaced with lightweight Aluminum material. The objective of present study is to propose lightweight material for the connecting rod to improve fuel consumption, meet emission norms by reduction of weight of vehicle. The connecting rod is modeled in NX11, acting Inertia forces calculated, comparative virtual analysis carried out on the steel and aluminum connecting rod using material 70MnVS4 & AL 7075 respectively. Prototype manufactured by CNC block machining process. Proposed lightweight material has extensively analyzed for manufacturing process, material property, virtual simulation & experimental testing on physical prototype sample on universal testing machine. Both connecting rod mass comparison carried out on weighing machine. Observed mass was 438g & 224g respectively for steel & aluminum connecting rod.