Winning on Durability: Users Spotlights 

Wondering what it looks like to use Endurica durability workflows in real world rubber parts engineering?  Tune in to hear from three of our users as we spotlight experts from companies specializing in critical applications and the automotive sector. 

Enhancing the fatigue life of inflatable seals in demanding environments

François Rouillard
R&D – Mechanical Engineer – Maestral Sealing Laboratory – Technetics

The information Mr. Rouillard will present has been compiled in partnership with The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). 

Inflatable seals are convenient where gaps are large and/or variable. Technetics has the capability to extrude and joint elastomer seals of all shapes. Decades ago, shapes were drawn by hand and tested in by prototyping real samples. Now, Finite Element Analysis enables both virtual prototyping/testing and design optimization. Join us as our client presents the methods used to simulate inflatable seals fatigue life, from the samples characterizations to the seals calculations to be compared and validated with full scale tests.  

 

Durability analysis of 3-axis input to elastomeric automotive bushing

Manager - Elastomer Materials Engineering - DRiV

Guy Smith 

CAE Manager - DRiV

Fatigue life prediction of elastomer NVH suspension products has become an operating norm for OEMs and suppliers during the product quoting process and subsequent technical reviews. In this work, DRiV applies a critical plane analysis based fatigue simulation methodology for a front lower control arm. Filled natural rubber behaviors were measured and defined for the analysis, including: stress-strain, fatigue crack growth, strain crystallization, fatigue threshold and initial crack precursor size. A series of four distinct single and dual axis bench durability tests were derived from OEM block cycle specifications, and run to end-of-life as determined via a stiffness loss criterion. The tested parts were then sectioned in order to compare developed failure modes with predicted locations of crack initiation. In all cases, failure mode was accurately predicted by the simulation, and predicted fatigue life preceded actual end-of-life by not more than a factor of 1.4.