Bushing Design for Automotive and Commercial Applications

This course is designed to cover all aspects of bushing design and engineering for both automotive and commercial applications. It’s a the perfect introduction for a new engineer to learn basics of rubber bushings as well as seasoned professionals to pick up some new tips.

The course includes an actual natural rubber production recipe, with many photos and examples of inner metals and outer metals along with detailed drawings presented. A large portion of the class focuses on fatigue testing past and present with discussion of rainflow data, block cycle testing and actual Wohler J curves derived by the author. Class participants will also explore:

• Dual durometer and hydraulic bushings with an actual take apart bushing shown.
• Static rate calculations with results compared against FEA and real-world testing.
• Static and dynamic tests, vehicle natural frequency, NVH and road data.

A section on drawings showing different bushing constructions concludes the class.

Instructor

Karl Winkler

Karl Winkler was president of Experimental Services, Inc., an independent testing lab specializing in the testing and development of engineered polymer products. He specialized in dynamic and fatigue test methods. He was formerly employed at Teledyne Monarch Rubber Company as ... read more

Who Should Attend

This course is appropriate for new bushing engineers and seasoned professionals wanting to gain more insight.

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

• Name fatigue methods used for rubber bushings.
• Identify fatigue curves for three unique sizes of rubber bushings.
• Explain various rubber bushings based on sample drawings provided in class.

Course Outline/Topics

1) Rubber Types and Compounding

2) Bushing Types and Construction

3) Two Part Moldings and Hydrobushings

4) Inner-Outer Metals and Adhesion Preparation

5) Bushing Static Rate Calculations

6) Finite Element Analysis

7) Static and Dynamic Testing

8) Vehicle Development

9) Fatigue Methods

10) Miscellaneous Topics