USE* Collaboration for Vehicle Headlamp Package

Digital serviceability support from USE* Automotive promotes and enculturates a design for serviceability mindset into product development activities. USE* classify these services as SERP (Service Evaluation and Repair Process), reflecting both the competent expertise that we provide to support this function and our out of the box process toolset that we can deploy and adapt to any of our customers’ product development PLM systems.

In this example, extensive work supported an evolving headlamp design to minimise the potential implications for Cost of Ownership.

The Challenge

In some EU markets there is a legal requirement obliging car-makers to provide vehicle designs that facilitate roadside replacement of headlamp bulbs without recourse to tooling other than equipment provided as standard with the vehicle. As a result, headlamp design is often a facet of product development that engages the services of USE* SERP Engineers.

Working with a prestigious automotive OEM client, USE* specialists worked with client engineering teams who were proactive in ensuring the best possible outcome for a complex headlamp styling feature on a new vehicle. As well as seeking a design that would meet homologation requirements, a headlamp configuration that would be quickly serviceable would also minimise costs to the customer from a low impact collision, and therefore favourably impact upon Cost of Ownership.

The challenge was to collaboratively arrive at an ideal design that fulfilled the styling brief, while working with only virtual model data.

The Solution

The solution lay in the application of path planning software. Path planning CAE tools are used to plot a route for an object through a three-dimensional digital environment without clashes, or within parameters of constrained clashes. This allows a SERP engineer to assess rapidly the feasibility of extracting a target item from an awkward location, using digital data alone, by identifying whether or not a collision free path can be found.

Working closely with colleagues in our client’s Service and Product Development areas, USE* SERP Engineers assessed evolving iterations of emerging designs for the vehicle body and headlamp assembly (also considering the developing surrounding package), providing input to help ensure that the developing concept was in alignment with the best outcome for serviceability and for the customer.

Its Benefits

Collaborative working considered alternatives for headlamp package and fixing strategies until the optimum service condition was achieved. As such, the key drivers in terms of protecting Cost of Ownership and homologation requirements for the vehicle were fulfilled. Aside from the commercial benefits of competitive or best in class Cost of Ownership, Service collaboration in this design also meant that labour times for the headlamp removal are minimal, thereby also delivering very considerable warranty benefits to the client.

Our Achievements

The key aspect of the successful result was that it was achieved prior to design freeze and well in advance of any physical prototypes being available. As such, this exercise constituted an important aspect of removing altogether any dependence on rapid prototypes or physical prototypes that our client previously had as an aid for serviceable design.

Along with the financial and commercial benefits that the vehicle design will deliver to our clients, this work also contributed to the verification of new cost-saving methods that USE* have helped introduce into our client’s product development processes.

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