Clips and brackets. Assembly & Disassembly Force

Abstract

Some of the core values shared by Volvo Car Corporation are safety and health of their employees, for this reason the company needs fast, reliable and accuracy tools that allows the verification of security and ergonomic criteria’s. This research is focused on simulating the forces needed to assembly and disassembly the fuel lines into the clip all around the fuel system, since the actual verification method is the real test made after its manufacture. In order to obtain a good simulation tool, during the research period several task are performed such us: simulations of two different clip models with their respective parameter changing and setting, real tests of those models, study of the behaviour of the material, correlation between results and redesigns in one of the models. The obtained results and the correlations show different conducts, in some cases, the simulation gives values really close to the reality, and in other cases, the values are a bit different. However, in general terms the behaviour of the clip is really close to the reality. As a result, it can be assumed that the simulation´s methodology achieved could not replace the actual verification method, but it can be used as a verification method for the early stages, in a complementary way, allowing monetary and time saving. Key words: Fuel lines; Automotive; Simulation; FEM; Abaqus; ANSA; Test; Polyamide; Volvo Car Corporation; Assembly force; Pull-off force; Correlation; Recommendations; Design