International Journal of Advancements in Technology http://ijict.org/ ISSN 0976-4860 Vol. 2 No. 4 (October 2011) ©IJoAT 561 Concurrent Design and Prototyping of Composite Accelerator Pedal Pankaj Chhabra, Puneet Katyal and Vishal Gulati Mechanical Engg. Department , GJ University of Science and Technology Hisar, Haryana 125001 , India Corresponding Author Email:katyalgju@gmail.com Abstract In this work, Concurrent Engineering (CE) approach has been used to determine the most optimum decision on design concept and material of the composite accelerator pedal at conceptual design stage. Comprehensive studies are carried out to prepare the design specifications of composite accelerator pedal. Various design concepts are generated using the Morphological approach. In particular at design stage, CATIA is used to generate various design concepts followed by analysis on ANSYS. Simultaneously, material selection is done on the basis of past research & specifications. Rating/weighting matrix evaluation method is used to select the best concept for the profile of pedal arm on the basis of mass, volume, stress and deformation results achieved on ANSYS. The composite accelerator pedal is optimized and analyzed for safety parameters and finally prototyped using Selective Laser Sintering. The results reveals the feasibility of composite accelerator pedal with glass filled polyamide providing substantial weight saving and better properties than existing metallic pedal. Keywords: Accelerator pedal, Concurrent Engineering, CAD. 1. Introduction In recent years, composite materials have been used in interior automotive components because of their properties such as low weight, high specific stiffness, corrosion free, ability to produce complex shapes, high specific strength and high impact energy absorption etc. Therefore, this work is towards the development of an interior automotive component such as composite accelerator pedal for replacing it with the existing metallic one to reduce weight in conformation with safety standards. Most of the automotive accelerator pedals generally fail due to inappropriate decisions during selection of design concept, material and manufacturing process. In this work, Concurrent Engineering (CE) approach has been used to determine the most optimum decision on design concept and material of the composite accelerator pedal at conceptual design stage. In this view, development process is carried out under CE environment (Fig. 1). Comprehensive studies are performed to prepare Product Design Specification (PDS). Various