Prototype Testing for Automotive Development

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Posted on:  Aug 10, 2018, | By Tony, WayKen Project Manager

How Is Automotive Developed?

Do you know how cars were developed? In your opinions, it’s possible to see a designer who is very artistic, drawing sharp lines on a sketch. Yes, but not exactly you think about.

For an automotive engineer, what comes to mind is:

  1. The grimy designer is scraping the fifth version of the scale sludge model;
  2. Engineers are updating the 145th edition of the digital model;
  3. Designers and engineers gathered in front of the prototype and watched the prototype of the project they were involved in. They grinned proudly and complained that the headlights were too ugly and the interior was too shabby;
  4. Over and over on the road test site, the engineer accelerated, slowed down, curved quickly, frowned, and murmured: how could the noise not be repeated;
  5. After the project was officially launched, all the team members took a group photo in front of some brand new cars.

To be sure, the launch of a new car has involved thousands of people working day and night. As one of the most complex products invented in the history of human civilization, automobile has a history of more than one hundred years. Accordingly, its development process, after more than 100 years of development, has been very perfect. Mainstream global carmakers, such as general motors, Volkswagen and Toyota, have their own development processes. But when you look at it, it’s pretty consistent.

After the positioning of the car model is determined, it will enter the conceptual development stage. This stage mainly focuses on the modeling design and the early construction of the project.

The positioning of the car model determines the overall appearance of the car style. That’s when our designer comes on. Designers from the early sketch design, small model production, finally produced 1:1 model, to the leadership review. The leader said: look good. The next step is to continue the development of the project as recorded. After the above test is passed, the product verification phase is basically over.

The next stage is product development. After the initial design, after a few rounds of design review, the product can be officially opened to make parts. After the parts come out, we can do product verification.

Product verification includes component level verification and vehicle level verification. Part – level verification, it includes platform performance verification. Stand validation will be carried out under the most rigorous test conditions. After all the parts have been verified, the prototype car can be made. Arrange the test after the sample car comes out. Besides special tests, such as collision test, inlet and exhaust test, vibration and noise test (NVH) of the whole vehicle, road test certificate of the whole vehicle is also needed. In the test and certification stage of the whole vehicle road, the vehicle should strengthen fatigue endurance according to various typical conditions, such as high-speed condition, gravel road condition, square pit condition and corrosion condition.

What Is Automotive Prototype?

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Automotive prototype is a sample car produced by automobile manufacturers during the development of new products. It is mainly used for various evaluation and performance tests of new products. After finding out the problems of the sample car and making modifications, the new round of sample car will be tested. In general, after a few rounds of trial production and testing of prototype vehicles, new products can be set up and put into production.

Rapid Manufacturing Technology for Automotive Development

Automotive development is one typical example which small initial quantities are needed for validation procedures. This critical demand is no doubt great challenges for parts manufacturers. When client comes to order a few dozen pieces, it’s often hard to respond, which is why auto suppliers frequently have to turn to customed machined solutions. Traditional, long-lived standard tools are expensive and are generally not viable for small batch production situations that require only low-volume demands. Professional rapid prototyping companies tend to be the fastest to understand the needs of designers and provide customized machining services to meet the needs of small quantities or even a single part.

Including the structure & performance verification, automobile verification includes the visualizations of CAD digital model, design evaluation and interference inspection and even some functional test can be achieved by automotive prototyping method.

Rapid prototyping and manufacturing techniques are used to compare multiple designs in a short time, thus they help reduce the development time of the entire product development. Also, before formal standard tooling for production, there will be pre-series tooling for low volume production. Methods such as silicone tool and ALU tool are as bridge tool before production.

Professional rapid prototyping companies tend to be the fastest to understand the needs of designers before production, and they usually provide customized machining services to meet the needs of small quantities or even a single part.

What Did Automotive Parts Testing Include?

Automotive is a complex electromechanical hybrid system composed of tens of thousands of parts. Auto parts testing can help OEMs and automotive spare parts manufacturers to quickly improve parts performance meet the higher requirements for product quality and safety. Environmental reliability testing service covers auto parts, electrical performance test, function test, EMC testing, materials testing, test of green environmental protection and chemical regulation compliance services.

prototype testing

Test condition of parts in the limit environment of the whole vehicle: the test of the whole vehicle durability is usually carried out by the test & calibration engineer of the whole vehicle factory. To test the durability of the vehicle, it costs a lot to build the engineering prototype, rent the test site and hire the engineering team. However, the more tests are carried out in extreme cold, high temperature, high humidity and other extreme environments, the more sufficient the function, performance and durability performance of components can be verified. The earlier problems are found, the lower the cost of repair will be.

Applications Interior Parts Exterior Parts Prototype Functional parts
• Design Verification

• 3D Data Verification

• Performance Test

• Reliability Test

• Loading Test

• limited-run trial production

• Low-volume Customization

• Show Vehicles

• Market Study Models

• Customer Evaluation

• Bumper

• Grilles & Grille Covers

• Emblems & Plates

• Headlights

• Taillights

• Fog lamps

• Mirror housings & Mounts

• Door Handles

• Spoilers & Air Dams

• Trunk Lids

• Chrome trim

• Fenders & Fender Liners

• Bumper

• Grilles & Grille Covers

• Emblems & Plates

• Headlights

• Taillights

• Fog lamps

• Housings & Mounts

• Door Handles

• Spoilers & Air Dams

• Trunk Lids

• Chrome trim

• Fenders & Fender

• Air components

• Air filter housing

• Engine cover

• Shifting device lid

• Battery components

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