Investigation of Temperature Impact on Friction Conditions in Running Production of Automotive Body Components

Abstract

Abstract During the running production of automotive body components drifts in the process window is seen causing problems with non-conforming parts. Up until now, these drifts have been counter-acted based on the knowledge and experience of the press line operators. This experience-based process control will however become more troublesome in the future as recycled material grades will undoubtedly present larger in-coil variations in material parameters and effect also the friction conditions from component to component. The following study will present two cases from production of the Volvo XC60. For the two cases, the initial simulations made for the components showed a safe part, but during running production failure occurred suspected to be due to temperature effects in the tribology system. The study will furthermore present updated simulations considering developing thermal effects to replicate the failures, as well as present both standard and thermal simulations of the adjustments made in production.