General Motors Honors Engineers with Technical Innovation Awards
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General Motors has announced June 12 the winners of the
annual "Boss"
The "Boss"
"Boss
This year, the award winners highlight GM's focus on the
use of technology to enhance the customer's overall vehicle experience,
increase vehicle safety, reduce product to market lead time, and increase
manufacturing efficiency.
2006 "Boss"
(Source: GM)
BELT-ALTERNATOR-STARTER TENSIONER DESIGN
The BAS Hybrid features a dual mode
Belt-Alternator-Starter Tensioner that ensures proper belt tension in all
hybrid operating modes. This innovative "industry first" design
system optimizes overall belt tension and bearing loads at significantly
reduced manufacturing cost.
Winner: Paul McVicar and Cynthia Thurston from GM
Powertrain Product Engineering.
CARGO MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The unique modular Cargo Management System utilizes three
fasteners to attach to GM full-size pick-up trucks. The system does not add
additional weight or cost to the vehicle and can be added at the assembly
plant, dealership, or as an aftermarket product.
Winner: Brian Jutila from GMNA Product Development.
EMULATION FOR VIRTUAL VALIDATION OF CONTROLLER LOGIC
The Emulation for Virtual Validation of Controller Logic
offers engineers the ability to validate controls logic in a virtual
environment, minimizing Virtual Validation of Controller Logic technology
removes the validation process from the product launch critical path,
supporting key launch timing strategy.
Winners: Leandro Barajas, Stephan Biller, Fangming Gu, and
Chengyin Yuan from GM Research and Development; and Dan Aufderheide, Jeff
Byrnes, Gabriel DeMarco, Mark Emeott, Gerald Gurian and Demet Wood from
Controls, Conveyors, Robotics & Welding Manufacturing Engineering.
EXTENDED CAB PICKUP 170 DEGREE REAR DOOR
This innovative invention allows the rear vehicle door to
fold almost flat against the pickup truck body with 170 degrees of rotation,
enhancing vehicle accessibility. The invention utilizes a hidden hinge system
which improves vehicle appearance.
Winner: Brad Pietryga from GMNA Product Development.
INNOVATIVE CURTAIN AIRBAG SYSTEM WITH NEW FIXATION CONCEPT
This new airbag attachment system utilizes "industry
first" clips which enable significant cost savings. The implementation of
this technology complies with GM's vehicle safety requirements and supports the
EuroNCAP 5- Star rating for this product.
Winners: Frank Bonarens, Matthias Brunner, and Johannes
Diehl from GM PE Airbag & Restraint Systems, Steering Wheels, and Labels;
Waldemar Medla from GM Europe Vehicle Systems; and Benjamin De Buysscher from
GM Belgium NV/Manufacturing Engineering.
MAINTENANCE TOOLBOX DEVELOPMENT FOR GM POWERTRAIN PLANTS
The Maintenance Toolbox is a real-time plant floor
decision support tool which provides prioritized maintenance alerts, preventive
maintenance opportunity window notification, throughput analysis, prioritized
lists of failing machine components based on a total cost approach, and uses
predictive maintenance techniques to optimize preventive maintenance intervals.
The system enables the identification of machine components that have the
largest cost impact considering frequency of failure, downtime and component
cost, facilitating maximum manufacturing throughput.
Winners: Venkat Ram Dwibhashyam from GM Powertrain
Manufacturing Engineering; Basel Shadid from the GM Powertrain St. Catharine's
Engine Plant; Leandro Barajas, Stephan Biller, Qing Chang, and Guoxian Xiao
from GMNA Research & Development; and Pulak Bandyopadhyay from GM Research
& Development - India.
MATH BASED POWERTRAIN TESTING & CALIBRATION
The Math Based Powertrain Testing and Calibration process creates
a "virtual test cell" from limited test data to produce significantly
enhanced Powertrain calibrations. The use of this methodology produces
calibrations that fully optimize fuel economy, performance, and quality. This
technology provides a means to reduce product to market lead time, reduce cost
and improve customer satisfaction via improved powertrain performance.
Winners: Julian Blair, Xu Han, William Howell, Pochuan
Hsing, Joseph Kelly, Uday Korde, Rohit Paranjpe, and Xinyu Zhou of GM Powertrain
Product Engineering; and Donald Jones from GMNA Product Development.
ONSTAR VEHICLE DIAGNOSTICS
The OnStar Vehicle Diagnostic system enhances customer
satisfaction and improves vehicle safety by utilizing a unique set of
algorithms to collect key information. Using this information, OnStar sends a
personalized e-mail to inform customers of their vehicle maintenance status.
Additionally, GM engineers utilize the data to detect and address issues that
may occur throughout the vehicle's lifecycle.
Winners: John Correia, Walter Dorfstatter, Chester Huber,
Neelie Kapral, Fahd Laghrari, Shane McCutchen, Christopher Oesterling, Steven
Ross, and Steven Samolinski from OnStar.
PARK ASSIST/REAR VIDEO OBJECT OVERLAY
This innovative invention is an integration of Rear Vision
and Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist which is designed to warn drivers of objects
located behind the vehicle. It features a visual "caution" symbol
that significantly enhances customer satisfaction and safety.
Winners: Charles Green and Kent Lybecker from GMNA Product
Development.
REAR END CARRIER "FLEX FIX"
This invention extends the load carrying capacity of the
traditional vehicle to the rear exterior section. The load carrier is
completely integrated into the vehicle's rear end design utilizing underbody
space. The invention allows the vehicle to extend load capacity without
interfering with vehicle maneuverability or compactness.
Winners: Ralf Bechtold and Frank Leopold from the GM
Vehicle Architecture & Innovation Center; Hendrick Hofmann from GM PE
Body-in-White; Heiko Oetting and Sven Weinfurtner from GM Europe Adam Opel; and
Thomas Uhlendorf from GM Europe Reuse Management.
ROBOT DATA EXTRACTION AND VALIDATION TOOL
The Robot Data Extraction and Validation Tool is a robust
analytical data- driven methodology utilizing assembly plant robot data to
automatically validate manufacturing design intent. The tool drives plant
efficiency and improves the quality of the weld verification process by
reconciling any discrepancies between the design engineering intent and actual
plant floor implementation. Weld verification is a critical process in
maintaining the safety and structural integrity of the vehicle.
Winners: Eric Carlson, Laurie Francis-Krentz, Brian
Miller, Assolime Santy-Ateyaba, James Singer, and Gary Snavely from GM
Manufacturing Engineering; Roland Menassa and Jane Shi from GM Research &
Development.
STATE COMPENSATED MISFIRE DETECTION
State compensated misfire detection provides a novel
mathematical approach to detecting engine misfire. This invention enabled the
detection of misfires on high performance engines without adding significant
cost or hardware to the engine.
Winners: Tameem Assaf, David Mathews, and David St. Pierre
from GM Powertrain Product Engineering.
TRANSITION CONTROL FOR ENGINE STOP-STARTS
These inventions enable the Belt-Alternator-Starter (BAS)
Hybrid to have superior quality engine stop-starts and associated low-speed
driveline control, while achieving excellent fuel economy. The inventions make
possible a simpler, lower cost hybrid system that reduces the disturbance
related to engine stop-starts and is critical to vehicle performance quality.
Winners: William Aldrich III, Birendra Bhattarai, Donald
Crites, Tony Hoang, Goro Tamai, James Worthing and Mark Zerbini from GM
Powertrain Product Engineering.
General Motors, also maker of quality GMC Sonoma parts, created the
"Boss"
About the Author
Iver Penn
is a Mass Communications graduate who hails from
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