Reducing Lead Time and Increasing Vehicle Quality with Squeak and Rattle Simulation

• Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
• Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)

• Automotive
• Life Sciences

• Product Research & Development
• Quality Assurance

• Virtual Reality
• Virtual Training

• Testing & Certification
• Training

CalsonicKansei North America (CKNA), a part of the global automotive parts manufacturer, CalsonicKansei Corporation based in Japan, was facing a challenge with squeak and rattle (S&R) in vehicle interiors. This issue was affecting the quality of their products and customer satisfaction. Despite being experienced in modern Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) techniques, CKNA had not fully explored the potential of using simulation technologies to investigate S&R issues before physical hardware production. Squeak and rattle are two phenomena which occur when two parts of an assembly are in relative motion due to a specific excitation load. The lack of knowledge in S&R methodology was preventing early issue detection, leading to inefficiencies in product completion and potential warranty claims.

CalsonicKansei North America (CKNA) is part of the global automotive parts manufacturer, CalsonicKansei Corporation based in Japan. The company creates a wide range of automotive components including interior cockpits and center consoles. CKNA aims to develop high-end, innovative products and to continuously improve cost competitiveness. To achieve these goals, they are continuously evolving and improving their development processes. Computer aided engineering (CAE) plays a huge role in this capability. The use of CAE results in improved quality as well as reduced timing.

CKNA approached Altair ProductDesign (PD) for training on the Squeak & Rattle Director (SnRD), a comprehensive set of software automations that rapidly identify and analyze design alternatives to eliminate the root causes of squeak and rattle in assemblies. Over time, the companies decided to work together to achieve more significant progress. Altair was able to offer the SnRD as well as insight into the methodology of squeak and rattle to better help CKNA correlate their simulation results with the actual performance of the products being developed. Altair provided perspective on the prerequisites required for such analyses, including which modeling techniques should be used, how to increase the fidelity of the finite element (FE) models, what kinds of loads should be applied, which methods are appropriate for correlation and prediction, etc. This collaboration resulted in a joint cockpit project, where each step of the modeling, simulation and test results analysis was completed hand-in-hand by the two companies.

• With Altair PD’s help on the cockpit project, CKNA was able to recognize how their existing FE models could be improved in the frame of the SnRD process, enhancing the fidelity and better capturing the reality. This was beneficial for S&R analysis but also improved the correlation for other load cases like Frequency Response Analysis, which is part of standard load cases performed by the CKNA CAE team. Altair was also able to provide tailored scripts to jumpstart a robust process at CKNA, including how to create loads from frequency to time domain and the method of correlating between test and simulation data. The new process included the consideration of material data and damping as well, both pieces which were lacking in their process before. CKNA learned how using SnRD to detect squeaks and rattles earlier in the development process can improve the overall final product design. CKNA can now cut project development time considerably and potentially gain more clients than previously possible by adding the squeak and rattle CAE based prevention methodology and simulation capability to their portfolio of services.

• More efficient product completion
• Earlier detection of product issues
• New capability added to company portfolio