PROJECT AIM
Under the management of Ford Werke GmbH in cooperation with Gestamp (Autotech UK), GRM Consulting, and the University of Warwick, a fibre composite knuckle was developed for the rear suspension of a compact class vehicle. The Class project (composite lightweight automotive suspension system) was sponsored by Innovate UK. The aim was to overcome the technical, financial and ecological challenges of mass production of a lightweight knuckle and to reduce a vehicle’s CO2 emissions by reducing its weight. The project supports Ford’s lightweight strategy to further reduce CO2 emissions and demonstrates a design that is 35 % lighter than the multi-part production steel component.
CONSORTIUM
GRM provides engineering consulting services as well as software development and sales. The experts team, within the project responsible for the optimisation of the knuckle, developed new CAE tools to cope with the different materials. They are capable of optimising several different features in parallel. Gestamp is a multinational company specialised in the design, development and manufacture of highly engineered metal components for vehicles. The project team was accountable for the design of the knuckle and interfaces to the mating parts. It also included CAE calculations to confirm the compliance with the requirements. The tests conducted were set-up and built of component and system test rigs according to the design verification plan from Ford with a subsequent correlation to CAE calculations. The experts laid out a factory for manufacturing the parts in series production, which led to a cost estimation for the Class knuckle.
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