Deck Lid Surround Fit Correlation Study Between Dimensional Variation Simulation and Physical Vehicle

Abstract During vehicle development process, dimensional variation simulation has been applied to evaluate fit performance of build variation widely, including front end area, rear end area, interior and chassis. Both product and process variation are simulated based on rigid assumptions in traditional variation simulation model, but many components are not rigid and deformed after assembled on physical vehicle, which make the variation simulation model result not correlate with physical build well. Deck lid is kinetic and easy to be elastic deformed that is caused by torque rod and seal force, which would affect deck lid surround fit, especially for deck lid to body side outer flush, but these situations are not considered in traditional variation simulation model. In order to improve the correlation between dimensional variation simulation and physical vehicle variation, in this paper, deck lid deformation is considered in new variation simulation model. Compared with traditional method, the correlation between new variation simulation model and build variation on physical vehicle improved by 17%. This calculation method and result are closer to physical build than traditional variation simulation, limit of this study is seal margin variation, striker and bumper adjustment are not considered in FEA model. In future study, need to improve the correlation by considering all these factors. This study could be applied to identify actual vehicle fit risk in product development phase, it could also save tooling change cost in build period.