Client

Premium Mouldings
& Pressings,
Gurgaon

Industry

Automotive Components

Challenge

Diesel engines are known to have a higher level of vibration compared to petrol engines. However, the end customer, India’s leading passenger car maker, was unwilling to accept a higher transmitted vibration level at car user “touch points”, the seat, the steering wheel, and the brake pedals. Our customer supplied steering wheels for the petrol version, but was at risk of losing the business after introduction of diesel engines to a competitor who lowered the vibration level in their version of the steering wheel by adding an expensive, and proprietary, additional damper component.

 

Challenge for Timetooth was to redesign Premium’s steering wheel to reduce the transmitted vibration felt at the steering wheel, preferably without adding an additional damper component, and without increasing the weight or the cost.

 

Service Area

High Performance Design

Timeline

March 2009
(6 months)

casestudy_steeringwheel_01
casestudy_steeringwheel_02

Since this early design innovation, custom cross-sections in steering wheel armatures has become an industry standard, found in almost 100% of passenger cars in production today.

Key Engineering Solutions

1. The metal frame was embedded inside the plastic exterior of the steering wheel.

2. The traditional round cross section of the armature was replaced by a custom-designed, figure of eight section.

3. The final cross section not only reduced the vibration but also was lighter in weight.

Solutions

Simulation to the rescue – Timetooth engineers explored alternate designs for the “armature”, the metal frame embedded inside the plastic exterior of the steering wheel, while maintaining an unchanged external appearance. The optimal solution appeared: replace the traditional round cross-section of the armature with a custom-designed, figure of eight section. The final cross section not only reduced the vibration, there was a bonus: the final steering wheel was also lighter in weight.

Between 2009 to 2014 the concept of using a custom-designed cross-section for steering wheel armature was progressively adopted by other car manufacturers all over the world. It has become an industry standard, found in almost 100% of passenger cars in production today.

Today the old circular cross section is extremely rare if at all and used only in non-passenger car applications (fork lift trucks etc.).

Key Highlights

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