Like other car manufacturers, Honda has been working to reduce the weight of auto parts, from body frames to engines to bolts. In order to achieve a simple design, the structure and materials of each component of the vehicle need to be carefully reviewed, and the lightweight component that Honda has recently focused on is the crankshaft.
Hirosumi Todaka, a mechanical and fluid machinery designer at the Honda R & D Advanced Technology Laboratory, said that the crankshaft needs to meet multiple functional standards. For example, its shape must be able to withstand the combustion pressure, and it must maintain a balanced rotation. The current shape of the crankshaft. In the long history of engine development, the design of the crankshaft has been finalized. Nevertheless, the Honda Institute of Technology decided to design a crankshaft that is 30% lighter than the existing model.
When seeking design techniques such as topology optimization, Honda Technology Research Institute found that generative design (generative design, generative design and iterative design) can greatly change traditional design specifications. Generative design has helped the automotive industry to redesign a variety of parts, such as seat belt brackets, engine control units, motorcycle frames, etc., which can significantly reduce the weight of parts every time.
Honda Technology Institute collaborated with Autodesk on the project to develop a flexible method. Autodesk used Netfabb and Fusion 360 to prepare the first crankshaft models to meet Honda requirements. The data from this prototype allowed Honda to reconsider its layout and strength criteria, creating a new set of boundary conditions for the component. The team continued to study and designed the second batch of models.
Traditional topology optimization techniques provide a solution that requires a lot of time to manually correct. Todaka said that the generative design of Fusion 360 provides a configuration that has never been considered. The new crankshaft design exceeded expectations and reduced weight by 50%. However, some people still doubt whether the rigidity and strength of the component can reach the rigidity and strength of ordinary crankshafts.
Team members installed the prototype on an engine for performance testing and shared the resulting data with the Autodesk team. The Autodesk team is using Honda data to improve its generative design process.