Details of Ricardo-designed ultra-lightweight 动力传动系统 systems to be revealed at CTI 柏林

• The internal layout of an innovative rear drive unit, designed and manufactured in prototype form by Ricardo, will be revealed for the first time today at the CTI Symposium
• This ultra-lightweight prototype saves a full 8.5 kg (24 percent) in comparison with that of the baseline production vehicle
• Also on show will be a Ricardo designed multi-material manual transmission casing prototype saving 1.9公斤(16%)
• These ultra-lightweight concepts were engineered as part of the recently completed Ultra-Lightweight Transmission and Driveline (ULTRAN) collaborative research project

ULTRAN has been a three-year research initiative led by Jaguar Land Rover in a consortium including Ricardo, 塔塔钢铁, 路博润公司, GRM咨询有限公司, 美国车桥制造 & Manufacturing and the Universities of Southampton, Newcastle and Warwick – with the support of the UK’s innovation agency, InnovateUK. The project set out to accelerate the processes of designing, developing and validating cost-effective lightweight drivetrain technologies, aiming to significantly push forward the practical application of reducing the mass of 动力传动系统 systems and components.  The latest generation Range Rover was the baseline for the research – a vehicle already the subject of extreme mass reduction, being 16 percent lighter than its predecessor.

Ricardo led the concept generation through to the manufacture and testing of the ultra-lightweight rear drive unit, 什么是ULTRAN项目的主要焦点. A fully clean sheet design with a Ricardo patent pending, the unit is based around a lightweight differential mounted within an innovative, 紧凑的, 单件骨架外壳，坚固耐用, 低密度轻质塑料外壳. The form of the skeletal design originated from finite element-based simulation and topology optimization. 使用这个数据驱动的模板, the skeletal design could then be developed in CAD, based on a single integrated aluminium die-cast structure, with closures and fluid seals formed by the lightweight plastic cover assemblies. 利用其系统方法实现轻量化, Ricardo eliminated internal parts and simplified those remaining, while maintaining comparable performance or improving upon the baseline design. The conventional differential carrier has been eliminated with the crownwheel supported in a double-row angular contact bearing, and differential gears supported directly within the crown wheel. A hollow pinion shaft was designed and manufactured, delivering a mass saving of 1kg for this component alone. 总分8分.5 kg (24 percent) mass saving of the complete unit was achieved approximately equally between the gears and shafts, 套管系统.

The TRL-5 prototypes of the rear drive unit manufactured by the project have been thoroughly evaluated under tests including high torque (5000 Nm), 润滑倾斜, 效率, durability (including extreme duty cycle) and in-vehicle ride and NVH. 通过这些评估, the prototype unit demonstrated its functionality with comparable performance to the current production unit.

Ricardo’s systems approach to 轻量化 was also demonstrated with the design using similar processes, 六速手动变速箱的外壳. In this instance, in a design also the subject of a Ricardo patent application, a weight saving of 1.9 Kg (16 percent) was achieved in comparison with the baseline.  

“The Ricardo contribution to the ULTRAN project has demonstrated the very significant opportunities for 动力传动系统 轻量化 that can be realized when a systems approach to product design for mass optimization, is applied by our highly experienced and creative engineers,乌尔夫·赫林评论道, head of the Ricardo Driveline and Transmission Systems Product Group. “ULTRAN set very ambitious goals by defining as its baseline vehicle a product that in many respects represents the current state of the art in terms of 动力传动系统 mass reduction. By applying the methodologies demonstrated in the ULTRAN project, we have shown that significant further mass reductions – with consequent improvements in vehicle 效率 and CO2 savings – are possible at comparable cost and performance to existing production, 基于市场现成的材料, 工艺和设计技术.”

The ULTRAN rear drive unit and transmission casing are both on display at the Ricardo exhibition stand J06 at the CTI Symposium, 柏林. 这篇论文 24% mass reduction from light-weighting process applied to an axle describing the design of the ULTRAN rear drive unit, will be presented at 2pm today.