A Study on the Weight Reduction of the Steering Pump Bracket

스티어링 펌프 브라켓의 경량화에 관한 연구

The power steering pump bracket for a passenger car which is mounted on the engine block plays a role to support the inertia forces of the pump and the reaction forces of the belt assembly. The existing bracket which is made of FCD material has some demerits such as heavy weight, lower productivity and lower reliability. Recently, AI alloy bracket has been investigated to overcome these demerits. In this study, Stress analysis and modal analysis for a existing FCD bracket and two type of AI alloy brackets were performed, and strength and natural frequency of them were estimated by using finite element method to accomplish the weight reduction. As a result, the modified shape of AI alloy bracket is proposed, and it has achieved the 45% weight reduction and the improvement of its strength and vibration characteristics.