A. Hambali

Concurrent Decisions on Design Concept and Material Using Analytical Hierarchy Process at the Conceptual Design Stage

There is an increased study for considering the precise decisions on the design concept (DC) and material concurrently at the early stage of development of product. Inappropriate decisions on DC and material always lead to huge cost involvement and ultimately drive toward premature component or product failure. To overcome this problem, concurrent engineering (CE) is an approach which allows designers to consider early decision making (EDM) need to be implemented. To illustrate the use of CE principle at the early stage of design process, a concept selection framework called concurrent DC selection and materials selection (CDCSMS) was proposed. In order to demonstrate the proposed CDCSMS framework, eight DC s and six different types of composite materials of automotive bumper beam have been considered. Both of these decisions were then verified by performing various scenarios of sensitivity analysis by using analytical hierarchy process through utilizing Expert Choice software.

Conceptual Design of Kenaf Polymer Composites Automotive Spoiler Using TRIZ and Morphology Chart Methods

Spoilers are part of an automotive exterior bodywork system that acts to create additional down force for higher traction. In this paper, a new conceptual design of automotive spoiler component using kenaf polymer composites was developed using integrated TRIZ and morphology chart design method. The aim is to enable direct application of kenaf polymer composites to the spoiler design to achieve better environmental performance of the component while maintaining the required structural strength for safe and functional operation. The overall process involved two major stages, which are the idea generation and concept development. TRIZ method was applied in the idea generation stage where specific solution strategies for the design were created. In the concept development stage, the specific TRIZ solution strategies obtained were later refined into relevant alternative system elements using Morphology chart method. Finally, a new conceptual design of an automotive spoiler was developed using the combination of the identified system elements. The integrated TRIZ and morphology chart method were found to be new tools that can be used effectively in the concept design stage, especially in cases where direct material substitution is given the main focus for the new product development.

A Review of Current Development in Natural Fiber Composites in Automotive Applications

Nowadays, natural fiber is an interesting option and it is the most widely applied fiber in composite technology. The natural fibers are used in most of the industries and are increasingly being considered as reinforcements for polymer-matrix composites because they are perceived to have sustainability value. This research paper aims to enlighten the existing development in natural fiber composites in automotive applications. Additionally, this research paper reviews the related papers from the year 2006 until 2013. Finally, a summary of selected products that have been identified by car manufacturers were identified.

Rigidity Analysis of Kenaf Thermoplastic Composites Using Halpin-Tsai Equation

In this paper, the stiffness mechanical property of natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites is analyzed using composite micromechanical model. Kenaf natural fiber is selected as the reinforcement material in the composites construction while three types of commonly used automotive grade thermoplastic matrices, namely polypropylene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polyamide 6 were selected to be reinforced with kenaf fibers. Their stiffness property was later analyzed using Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model at varying fiber content and fiber aspect ratio conditions. In all cases, theoretical results show that the kenaf reinforced thermoplastic composites stiffness increased linearly as the fiber contents were increased. Apart from that, results also show that the stiffness property also increases as the fiber aspect ratio was increased. Higher final composites stiffness property was also observed as stiffness matrix material is utilized in the composites formulation. The prediction results also provided valuable and quick insight as well as cost effective alternative to composite designers in assessing the stiffness performance of natural fiber composites especially those which are reinforced with thermoplastic matrices compared to conventional experimental technique for automotive product development purposes in addition to identifying the optimal parameter to be put into focus in their composites design to achieve the intended design performance specifications.

The Effect of Fiber Size on the Mechanical Properties of Bertam/Unsaturated Polyester Composites

The aim of this paper was the effects of different fiber size on tensile and flexural properties. Preparation of thermoset unsaturated polyester reinforced with particle Bertam (Eugeissona tristis) was done by hand layout method. Bertam/polyester composites containing Bertam fiber of different sizes, i.e., 15, 120 and 284 μm were prepared. For each composite, eight specimens were tested to evaluate the mechanical properties. It was found that composite reinforced with Bertam having the shortest fiber length, i.e, 15 μm showed the highest tensile and flexural modulus, which were 204.14 MPa and 1826.78 MPa, respectively.

Integration of Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Improve the Packaging Process for Automotive Stamping Part

In the business world today, organizations must be able to respond promptly and efficiently to the changing market needs. Therefore, the flaw in the conventional approach such as inefficiency and time consumption can contribute to product failure in the marketplace. This hinders organizations to provide the performance required and should be improved to respond to the current situation. Concurrent engineering should be adopted to overcome the problems associated with the conventional approach. This paper focuses on minimizing the conventional method by implementing concurrent engineering tools and techniques. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to reduce the wastage of time and costs, as well as labor during packaging process, by identifying the failure of the existing process and choosing a new concept for the packaging process using the integration of FMECA and AHP approach. Failures in the current procedure of packaging process were identified by using FMECA analysis, and 4 new concepts were proposed to improve the packaging process. To select the best concept, AHP was used due to the variety aspects to be considered, such as performance, maintenance, time of development, cost of development and potential cause of failure, in the selection of new concepts. The result shows that the proposed new concept for the packaging process can reduce the time, costs, and labor, in addition to the various aspects considered in the selection of a new concept. This paper presents the importance of considering the concurrent engineering tools in the manufacturing industry.

Thermoplastic Matrix Material Selection Using Multi Criteria Decision Making Method for Hybrid Polymer Composites

Multi criteria decision making (MDCM) methods are amongst the approaches available in aiding composite designers to make the final decision especially during the material selection process where multiple solutions are present and various requirements are required to be satisfied simultaneously. Thus, in this paper, material selection process of thermoplastic matrix using MDCM methods for hybrid natural fiber/glass fiber polymer composites is presented. The aim is to identify the most suitable type of thermoplastic matrix to be used in the hybrid polymer composites formulation. The Weighted Sum Method (WSM) is applied in the selection process of seven candidate thermoplastic matrix materials based on the product design specifications. The overall analysis highlights that low density polyethylene (LDPE) is the preferred matrix for the intended application based on the highest scores obtained compared to other candidate materials. A signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio analysis was further performed to validate the initial selection results where LDPE once again outperformed other candidate materials with highest S/N ratio score in the non-compensatory approach.

Development of an Integrated FMEA (i-FMEA) Using DAIREC Methodology for Automotive Manufacturing Company

Quality, reliability, and safety of products are the most important requirement of manufacturer in order to maintain their product competitiveness in market. Customers needs related to quality product in the market therefore drive the design and process activities to a high quantity of analysis. One possibility to reduce the number of activities is to integrate FMEA (i-FMEA) to merge Design FMEA (DFMEA) and Process (PFMEA) through DAIREC methodology. In this paper, a regression analysis between critical dimensional decided during design stage and key process factor in current process control is analyzed using MINITAB software. A judgment on a new ranking has been decided based on process performance indices (Ppk) for improvement lot.