AD&P; > November 2015 > NOTABLE
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Simulating Heat. While this
image might make you think that the whole
front end of that car is being melted from
intense heat, the intense heat part is at least
right. It is actually a simulation of the key-
of/heat soak situation that is arising more
frequently, particularly in new cars because
of the tighter under hood packaging that
exists, as well as the close-coupled catalysts.
This can lead to component degradation—or
failure. So thermal engineers must determine
the peak under hood temperatures during
key-of/soak, and then take countermeasures
to prevent thermal failure. That said, it is a
difcult task to accomplish. For example, it
has been determined that when cars are run
in climatic wind tunnels and a thermocouple
is used to check part temperatures, the
readings can be as much as 10°C of.
Consequently, there is a move toward
simulating what's occurring under the hood by a number
of OEMs, including Jaguar Land Rover, with software
developed by Exa ( exa.com ). The company's PowerFLOW
software combined with its PowerTHERM simulates both the
heat conduction in solids as well as thermal radiation efects.
Then the PowerVIZ visualization software permits thermal
engineers to see how fow patterns evolve over time. All this
without having to build physical properties.
Making Jeeps in Melf
While some people thought that building a Jeep in
Italy—specifcally, the Renegade ( see autofeldguide.com/
articles/on-the-2015-jeep-renegade-serious-fun ) in the
FCA Melf plant —not only has the product been a huge
success in Europe, but it is doing well in the U.S., too,
with 28,907 units sold through August.
And speaking of August, that's when the plant had its one-
year anniversary of producing the Jeep, as well as the Fiat
500X (see autofeldguide.com/articles/designing-the-fat-
500x ), and the Fiat Grande Punto.
To produce the Renegade and the 500X (they share a
platform), FCA invested over one-billion Euros in the plant.
The 1.9-million m
2
plant went into
production in 1993. It includes a
stamping shop, body-in-white area,
paint, and fnal assembly. There are
fve stamping machines and two
shears in the stamping shop, 860
robots in body-in-white, 54 robots in
paint, and 278 automatic fastening
stations in fnal assembly. There are
approximately 4,000 people putting
the vehicles together in the plant,
and some 8,000 in total. They built
over 135,000 Renegades in the frst
year of production.
q Jeep Renegades in production in Italy.