Retained Newness of Commercial Vehicle Interiors 2024-26-0188

Commercial vehicle are exposed to harsh environment conditions like dust, mud, wind, rain, extreme sun and winter throughout. Apart from white goods and other conventional loading these vehicles also used in applications which involve Handling of Dirty Loads, Construction Raw materials, Mining Industry etc. which leads to fast deterioration of Interiors. Also, in most cases drivers are not the owners. Hence due to high cost of Cleaning at dealerships and low Product maintenance awareness amongst Commercial Vehicle Users, on Road Washing & Cleaning by riverside is common practice which leads to early deterioration of Interior trims. This paper deals with the retention of newness of soft trim parts such as headliner, wall trims and carpets. Causes of product deterioration and attributes which influence newness like product appeal, NVH, perceived quality, environmental impact, geometry retention over time etc. have been discussed in detail. Material properties and design considerations for enhancing the product appeal for a longer period have been analyzed and solutions listed. Design verifications methodology has been formulated at digital level and physical validation plans have been developed. These designs have subsequently converted to physical prototypes which were successfully validated with the above methodologies and subsequently implemented in the final product. This work also involved manufacturing feasibilities for both in house and supplier end considering current practices and need for additional tooling and equipment. Finally, we concluded with Customer survey to ascertain the benefits and optimize our solutions to meet their techno-commercial requirements.