The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Maintenance offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at Brink Towing Systems.
The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Brink Towing Systems you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.
The project - Design of a validated prototype of a next-gen fully electric retractable towbar Brink’s MXe fully electric retractable towbar was released in 2012 and is currently in series production for Jaguar, Land Rover and Renault platforms. Based on experiences with the current design, Brink wishes to create a next generation of this product, which will have the same basic functionality but shall incorporate improvements on different aspects:
Functional: elimination of failure modes, improved robustness, smaller packaging and weight reduction.
The current design has a number of limitations and weak spots that should be overcome in a next generation. These include, but are not limited to, variance of the S-Load measurements, locking of the clamping blocks over life, and damage to gear teeth. Smaller packaging is desired and the current weight of the MXe system (approx. 12kg) should be reduced.
Manufacturability: quality control for the current design has proven to be difficult. This is due to the fact the a number of parts are hard to manufacture within tolerance, and the influence of variation in tolerance between different parts is not well understood. It is essential to have a firm grip on critical characteristics of the redesigned product and make sure they are controlled adequately by design, by suppliers, or in the manufacturing and assembly processes.
Cost: significant reduction of cost price (30%). Based on an analysis of cost drivers for the current systems, there is a lot of potential to reduce material cost by eliminating, combining, or redesigning parts, making use of different materials and/or different manufacturing processes.
Result of the project:
A validated prototype of the next gen MXe system. Methods and tools are open for discussion and may include requirements analysis, TRIZ, set based design and modelling techniques.
Methodology
Validation shall be performed with respect to defined required and an agreed customer application.
Deadline Application: 31-10-2017
Further details:
PDEng Programme in Maintenance at University of Twente