A Study on the Methodology for Improving IQS Score for Door Opening/Closing Effort 2011-01-0777

IQS score (hard to open/close) is a major factor in determining automotive door closing performance. There are several functions that automotive side doors must fulfill: isolation from snow/ rain/ noise/ dust/ high temperature, wind noise, and opening/closing functions. This paper focuses on side door Opening/Closing, which is not only the primary function but also the first operation that all customers experience when car shopping. As the subjective demands of customers have increased and their level of sophistication has grown, the ergonomics of automotive side door functions has become a critical issue for both designer and customer. The side door area does not generally have specifications because door operability totally relies on each customer's senses and there are no parameters to be measured by test/experimental devices. So the IQS score could become the standard for evaluating a door's difficulty of opening and closing. The objective of this work is 1)to develop a correlation between subjective evaluation, some test results and IQS score (hard to open/close) and 2)to find ways to improve IQS score (hard to open/close) by reducing the minimum closing velocity.