Lightweight Design For Cab Overturned Support Of A Medium-duty Truck Based On Casting Production

In the background of energy problem being increasingly prominent, it’s incrunch time for energy saving and emission reduction, and in the transport field, asthe market demand for carrying being on the rise, vehicles need to be decreasedself-weight so as to improve transport capacity. At the same time, with the price ofmineral resources rising incessantly, automobile manufacturing enterprises areunder intense pressure from rising cost. To control manufacturing cost and adapt tothe trend of vehicle development, how to fulfill the lightweight of automobile partsand components is a problem that each related enterprise has to face. This paper,according to the weight reduction requirements of automobile parts andcomponents from a cooperative enterprise, implements the parametric design of thecab former overturned mechanism, and makes a lightweight design of the caboverturned support, basing on the actual condition of casting production.This paper first introduced the background of the project research, combiningwith the actual condition of the project, summarized some problems in the processof lightweight, elaborated the purpose, significance and contents of the research,and then gave an overview of the developments in lightweight technology and inparametric technology. Then, the CAD parametric technology, the methods ofparametric design and the modules embedding of SolidWorks redevelopment wereintroduced, and basing on technologies above this paper built a parametric designsystem of the cab overturned mechanism, with the system functions, interface,design flow and parameterization of the models being described.Secondly, according to the general flow path of the lightweight design, withtaking the two cab overturned supports which were in the parametric design systemof cab overturned mechanism as the research objects, this paper, using the finiteelement analysis software COSMOSWorks, had a static stress finite elementanalysis of the two types of using support models. And then, lightweight designs ofthe two types of supports were made basing on the analysis results, with thestructural optimization methods and mathematical models being introduced.Then, this paper listed some problems of the supports lightweight design in thepractical production process, analyzed the casting defects of the structures bylightweight design in aspect of permanent mold casting process, and then had a further modification basing on the actual casting technique. The results indicatethat although the further modified structures have less weight reduction, thestructural performance and casting process properties of the supports have beenimproved.This paper, combining the actual needs of the automobile parts manufacturingenterprise, made designs of the cab former overturned mechanism parameterization,and the support models, with lightweight design basing on the casting production,meet the requirements of the design and production, which have certain practicalreference significance to other automobile parts lightweight design.