Untersuchungen zur Industrialisierung der Virtualisierung des Meisterbocks und Weiterentwicklung der Simulationskonzepte

Der Meisterbock dient, primär für Fahrzeugneuanläufe, als Mess- und Analysemittel von Exterieurbauteilen. Dazu gehören u.a. die Blech-Anbauteile wie Kotflügel, Türen, Front- und Heckklappen sowie Seitenteile. Um diese Bauteile und deren Interaktion im Einbauzustand zu bewerten bzw. zu qualifizieren, wird jedes Teil am Meisterbock montiert und wiederholgenau mithilfe des standardisierten Referenz-Punkt-Systems (RPS) ausgerichtet. Das Ziel dieses Projektes besteht darin, diesen Qualifizierungsprozess durch den Einsatz von numerischer Simulation mittels Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) zu optimieren, um den Aufwand der physischen Aufbauten zu reduzieren und damit die Effizienz zu steigern.

Quality and driving comfort rank among the top criteria of potential car buyers. Even though small dimensional deviations of exterior parts would not necessarily attract someone's attention, protruding parts or irregular gap sizes can cause, among other topics, interfering noises, degradation of driving experience or increase in the aerodynamic resistance. The Meisterbock (master jig) serves, primarily before the start of serial production of cars, as widespread test equipment for exterior parts. These include, among others, the sheet metal parts of fenders, doors, engine hood, trunk lids and side panels. In order to evaluate those assemblies and their interactions, each part is mounted on the Meisterbock and aligned according to the standardized Reference-Point-System (RPS). As a result, deviations from nominal geometries are determined and corrective actions for the manufacturing process can be derived. Due to the time and resource consuming activities of the physical installations, this iterative qualification method requires additional costs.

The Meisterbock is primarily used for new vehicle start-ups as a means of measuring and analyzing exterior components. These include sheet metal add-on parts such as fenders, doors, front and tailgates and side panels. In order to evaluate and qualify these components and their interaction in the installed state, each part is mounted on the master jig and aligned with repeat accuracy using the standardized reference point system (RPS). The aim of this project is to optimize this qualification process through the use of numerical simulation using the finite element method (FEM) in order to reduce the effort required for physical assembly and thus increase efficiency.