A hydrogen embrittlement evaluation test was conducted with 1180MPa grade ferrite-martensite type dual phase steel (1180DP) for automotive use by the Conventional Strain Rate Test (CSRT) method. The critical condition of hydrogen embrittlement was compared with those conditions obtained by U-bending and drawn cup methods. In the CSRT test, a notched sample was used and tensile speed was set at 1mm/min. Critical conditions were plotted of the strain and diffusible hydrogen content under stress of 900MPa. The condition of hydrogen embrittlement obtained by the CSRT method was lower than that obtained by the other two methods. A discussion on the importance of dislocation motion and hydrogen interaction is included.

In the evolving scenario of the global market, companies need to improve their competitiveness by innovating their traditional products and processes. In order to better understand the product development process typically implemented by industry, and the possible room for improvement, it is also important to take into consideration the evolution of products and of their users. Today’s products for the consumer market are more complex, and their aesthetic and usability aspects deserve more attention than in the past. Therefore, achieving a good balance between form and function is crucial [1]. Although the shape is strictly related with the aesthetic impact, it can also affect the functional requirements of the product, which must be satisfied. Therefore, quite often, the original shape has to be defined, and redefined, so as to best satisfy both the user’s aesthetic preferences and the functional requirements. The full satisfaction of consumers is increasingly becoming a key element of successful business strategies. Actually, customers’ preferences and attitudes have changed: more and more customers want to buy customized and personalized products [2]. This is the case for several kinds of products, including cars, domestic and electronic appliances, shoes, garments, and many others. So the personalization of products to fulfill specific requests from customers is becoming a key factor for success.

The automotive industry is one of the most important applications of electronics. Electronic and intelligence systems can be installed on vehicles by large companies every day. Attractive vehicles for customers have contributed to the creation of prosperity. In this article, following the review the update systems that the steering control systems, air bags, seat comfort, the vehicle electrical system introduced by companies like General Motors, Infineon and Delfi are mounted on vehicles. These studies can help progress the development of automobile industry.

With the increasing number of automobiles in China and other countries in the world, traffic accident has become one of the most serious social problems. Drivers are considered the main part in traffic behaviors, a safe driving assistant system for reducing traffic accidents is developed using the embedded system, sensing and image recognition technology. Functions of the system includes fatigue driving alarm, speeding alarm, rear-end collision alarm, pedestrian alarm and Alarm confirmation, The hardware and software of the system were designed and implemented.

In this paper, we have proposed a novel design of Microcontroller based user-interactive futuristic displays based on the Propeller Clock Display. It was designed to allow the user to alter the display by finger gestures. We demonstrate changing the time and the type of display dynamically at runtime. The design makes use of the fact that an image persists on the human brain for 1/16th of a second and hence, can be employed for cost-effective ways to create fascinating displays through micro-controllers. The work, thus, successfully investigates the possibility of creating such displays wherever there is a relative speed (linear or circular). Such displays could also be installed in wheels of automobiles, underground subways (utilizing linear motion of trains), ceiling fans, etc. using the same basic principles which are discussed in this paper.

As governments around the world press ahead in their efforts to improve social and economic growth, they continue to turn to development of intelligent transportation systems. Lots of alliances occurred between technology vendors and car fabrication vendors in order to make the best use of both fields to enhance, improve and make the transportation systems along with cars smarter. There are many technologies associated with the intelligent transportation concepts, such as wireless communication, built-in vehicles' electronic devices, high speed broadband networks, cloud computing1¦etc. the combination of these technologies will add a great value to the intelligent transportation ecosystem. In this paper, we will present a novel architecture for connected vehicles system using cloud computing and Amazon web services along with the challenges associated with implementing such system and go through its layered architecture. And the focus will be on the cloud computing part of the system.

The accurate 3-D crowning modification models of involute gears used in timing transmission system of automobile are made by combining parameterized modeling function of Pro/E with gear mesh principle. The edge effect in meshing process of the gear pair is validated by finite element method. Using gear mesh principle and contact mechanics theory, longitudinal corrections of a gear pair are designed combining crowning technology of roller bearings with the characteristic of gear mesh. Then it is testified by FEA that longitudinal correction can avoid the edge effect in the meshing process of the gear pair, so maximum stresses of the gears can be reduced effectively.

By combining parameterized modeling function of Pro/E with gear mesh principle, the accurate 3-D models of axial crowning modification of involute gears used in timing transmission system of automobile are made. Using gear mesh principle and contact mechanics theory, the simulations of gear meshing under multi-cases such as with no error and unmodified tooth, with errors and unmodified tooth, with errors and modified tooth are done by finite element method and thought of the characteristic of gear mesh. Then it is testified by FEA that (i)Axial angle errors exacerbate edge effect, (ii)tooth longitudinal correction can effectively depress the edge effect, (iii)optimized values of axial crowning modification are different under different cases.

This paper introduces the design method of copper metal mold for ductile iron castings idle gear based on UG. Numerical simulation of mold filling and solidification process for permanent mold castings are studied based on CAE. The design process of permanent mold is perfected more. The projects of design are worked out finally through this way. It can increase the accuracy and efficiency of the permanent mold design and shorten the manufacturing cycle of the permanent mold.

If you are the buyer, an auction may be a viable way to obtain what you want at a decent price. EBay is one such auction, but beware of the downside of any auction and do not get caught up in a bidding war where you pay more than an item is worth. People are competitive by nature; know your limit and stick to it. Regarding automobiles and unless you are a dealer, do not assume you can get a better deal through an auction whether you are buying or selling. I have purchased automobiles though auctions, at somewhat elevated risk due to limited availability to fully check out the vehicle prior to some auctions. Auctions can be fun with the adrenaline and the high when you win at or before you reach your preset (researched) price. Auctions are negotiations. Regardless of what you may hear elsewhere for using any type of auction (online or in person), do not present yourself until near the end if you are buying. Otherwise, you simply invite an incremental bid that simply raises the price. Research the game to fully understand the dynamics of any auction by observing them before you enter the foray. This is especially true of those you attend in person; you must understand the terms, language, hand signals and gestures beforehand lest you will be taken advantage of by those more experienced. If embarking on this path, choose a knowledgeable mentor to explain the details and steer you in the beginning. Although automobiles I have purchased at auctions turned out to be dependable with no hidden defects, however, I still do not recommend them for non-dealers. What I do recommend is buying from a reputable dealer, but first you must research the game and follow the other methods defined in this handbook. Using these techniques, you will have less risk and fewer competitors wanting the same automobile at the same time, etc. All of this can and will translate into a better deal. It works.

Rapid growth of road vehicles, private passenger cars in particular, has resulted in continuing growth in China's oil demand and imports, which has been widely accepted as a major factor effecting future oil availability and prices, and a major contributor to China's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission increase. Conventional gasoline (CG) is currently the only dominant fuel for automobiles in China. China has been promoting conventional diesel (CD), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and 10% bioethanol: 90% CG blend (E10) as alternatives to CG in the last decade. 20% biodiesel : 80% CD blend (B20) is likely to be introduced soon according to the government's renewable energy planning. However, impacts of these different fuel options need to be carefully assessed, especially from a life cycle perspective. In the present study, an assessment of automobiles powered by internal combustion engines from a life cycle perspective is conducted to evaluate and compare the fossil fuel use, petroleum use and GHG emissions for different fuel options in China. The life cycle stages considered cover the whole vehicle cycle from material production to disposal and the whole fuel cycle from feedstock recovery to fuel use. Fuel options assessed include CG, CD, LPG, CNG, E10 with ethanol produced from wheat, corn, cassava and sugarcane, and B20 with biodiesel produced from rapeseed and soybean. The main conclusions include that CD, LPG, and B20 are promising choices as they offer significant reduction potentials in terms of cycle fossil fuel use, petroleum use and GHG emissions compared with CG and that E10 can only offer very limited reduction potentials in terms of fossil fuel and GHG emissions.

There are power coupling and power separating processes exist in fuel cell/ battery hybrid electric automobile, whose management tactics of energy is very complicated. In order to distribute the outputs of driving force much more reasonably between fuel cell and battery, as well as strengthen it's robustness of management tactics of energy, this paper analyses theoretically the power distributing method of this Two-energy hybrid power electric automobile, which are fuel Cell and battery. Besides this, this paper also builds the simulated model of the controlling tactics of Power-Following strategy with Matlab/Simulink, as well as establishes the modeling and simulation modes of energy management system of this fuel Cell/ battery Two-energy hybrid power electric automobile with the parallel framework of ADVISOR2002.The result has showed that the parameter match is reasonable for power transmission system and can meet the designing target required.

Most of us hate anything that feels like a conflict. We would do almost anything to avoid an argument, paying it no attention and, hoping the problem will just go away. We end up agreeing to things that we have no intention of doing. We stay in a job long after our enthusiasm for it is dead and gone. When it comes to conflicts, fear tends to take over our behavior and reactions. In any organization, especially the very dynamic ones, coworkers tend to see conflicts and avoid them, some more than others. But it is not unusual for coworkers to be able to assert themselves competently in one part of the workplace, being self-assertive, able to address issues and readily engage in conflict, and not do so in another. Furthermore, the same people who are so assertive at work may be, in their private lives, a lot different. The opposite is also true; you find people that are very assertive and combative at home with their spouses, but perceived as pacemakers at their organizations, where they are motivated less by gentleness than by fear. Here conflict scares them. In the face of problems they freeze up inside, become passive and may even put off making a decision if they think it will lead to tension. Such attitudes can make a productive team very unproductive, impacting interpersonal relationships within the group. This may also affect the success of a project, if workers hired for their skills fear expressing opposite opinions about their subject matter expertise. Rational and logical thinking has been responsible for most achievements in life. However, as these achievements were archived and access to them became possible, answers to previously unknown problems became searchable, thus limiting and constricting our ability to think creatively, to innovate. Just think about the automobile industry. Nothing really has changed, except for the recent forays into hybrid cars, since the invention of automobile. Cars are still running on wheels and burning fossil fuel. Yet following the invention of the wheel, cars pulled by horses, the first steam cars and finally the first engine propelled car, not many years had gone by; nevertheless, each of those stages transcended the next. The same holds true for the architecture and building construction industries.

The article deals with current problems of two-dimensional warranty, prediction of related warranty costs and estimation of an instant of warranty period expiration. During selling consumer products, warranties play an important role, because recently they became a significant tool of competition fight and also because providing warranties has significant economic impacts for the supplier. Providing of warranty is always accompanied with additional costs, called warranty costs. Any decision connected with establishing a scope of provided warranties should be supported with an appropriate economic analysis, the basis of which is a prediction of warranty costs. Currently, the so called two-dimensional warranties are provided for many products. To be able to predict warranty costs associated with providing these warranties depend especially on the following facts • Warranty costs depend on a number of failures, which occur at the products during a warranty period and on the costs incurred to remove individual failures. Number of failures as well as repair costs has a character of random variables. • A time of termination of warranty period is defined in two ways, for example, a guaranteed calendar time of usage and guaranteed operating time, while a warranty period expires whichever value is reached. The article presents a procedure of predicting warranty costs when two-dimensional warranties are used for complex products in the initial stages of the life cycle. In creating this procedure, the following simplifying assumption on the failure occurrence that facilitates a solution has been adopted. It is assumed that over a warranty period, basically, two types of failures can occur at the products: • Failures the probability of which depend on a calendar time of usage and whose occurrence is not dependent on a time of operation. • Failures the probability of which depend on a time of operation and the occurrence of which is not dependent on a calendar time of usage. Individual steps of a procedure of predicting warranty costs are following: • Decomposition of product into items; • Identification of possible failures and character of their occurrence; • Failure repair mode determination • Prediction of a number of failure occurrence over a warranty period; • Estimation of costs to repair a concrete failure; • Resulting estimates. A problem in estimating warranty costs when two-dimensional warranty is used is to determine an instant of termination of a warranty period for which warranty costs will be estimated. Assuming a warranty as considered in this article, in principle, a warranty period can be carried out in three ways described in the article that define a termination of a warranty period. During a warranty period, usage of every product is different, so it is evident that it is difficult to determine in advance at which instant a warranty period expires. The article outlines a solution of this issue. On solving an issue of two-dimensional warranties at vehicles, the customer's behavior has been researched in terms of mileage per one year. More than 800 personal cars of a middle class have been researched. The results and example of use of achieved information to plan warranties are shown in the article.

From the earliest times when human beings lived in hunting/gathering communities to the modern era, humankind has adapted and survived. Life continues from generation to generation, and we hope that our offspring will have better opportunities and a better quality of life in a more prosperous social system than our own. Prosperity is closely related to energy, which plays a vastly important role in our daily lives. The use of energy, however, will generate by-products that, unchecked, can devastate our ecosystem. The areas of our concern are air pollution, water pollution, and toxic hazardous waste disposal. In response to air pollution problems, the U.S. Congress adopted the Clean Air Act (CAA) in 1963, authorizing federal research funds for air pollution related research activities. The CAA underwent several amendments. In 1965, the CAA enacted the establishment of automobile emission standards; in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed, in part to determine National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS); in 1977, requirements to offset emissions from new sources in non-attainment areas were mandated; in 1990, toxic substances control and global warming research were addressed. In 1997, NAAQS was further revised (see Appendix A).

Too often the 1920s are associated with frivolous subjects like bathtub gin, the raccoon coat, and rumble seats. In fields of technology, however, remarkable developments were taking place that were often overlooked by the public. One promising example was the ready availability of steam power, a major factor in spark-plugging an unprecedented national prosperity. America was now using almost as much electricity as the rest of the world’s nations combined. Of the 27 million autos in the world, 22 million were to be found in the United States, not to mention 61 percent of all the telephones and a plurality of the major products and machines using electricity and other forms of energy.