Innovative Design Supports Development of Energy Saving, Zero Emission Electric Powered Buses
PTC announced that Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has achieved great success using PTC Pro/ENGINEER for the design and research of 50 electric-powered buses, which were used for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. BIT’s Electric Vehicle National Engineering Laboratory used Pro/ENGINEER for the vehicle design, including the design of overall power train and battery box. Pro/ENGINEER is PTC’s integrated parametric MCAD/CAM/CAE software that helps companies to develop detailed, intuitive and realistic digital product models and related deliverables.
Green buses
With an ever increasing public awareness of “green” issues, zero-emission, diverse energy sources, low noise and low thermal radiation electric vehicles are becoming a major alternative in the transportation field. BIT has long been focused on the development of electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and other kinds of new energy vehicles.
The Olympic electric bus was equipped with low-floor electric chassis, a pioneer practice in the design of electric buses. Using Pro/ENGINEER as their design tool for battery box and power train, the BIT project team overcame technological challenges, such as the difficulties in limited structure space and other general layout problems. This electric bus includes a large-scale application of advanced high-capacity lithium-ion battery packs. The BIT Electric Vehicle National Engineering Laboratory developed a battery box featuring dust-proof, waterproof, adequate ventilation and cooling function, which allows fast battery replacement and enhances the security features of collision and high pressure avoidance.
As an embodiment of “Green, Hi-tech, and People’s Olympics” in Beijing, the electric buses provided 24-hour transport service for the Olympic officials, journalists and athletes in the central Olympic areas covering the Olympic village, media village, northern conference area and the Olympic Park. With the use of electric buses, a major project of the Beijing Olympic Games, China fulfilled its promise to the world to achieve zero-emission in the central Olympic areas in Beijing.
“Pro/ENGINEER has been a critical solution for the R&D of our electric vehicles. It provides excellent support to the web-based design environment with advanced parametric design features and rich CAD/CAE analysis capabilities. Product models created with Pro/ENGINEER are authentic and intuitive for problem analysis and project collaboration, which improves our working efficiency and quality,” said Prof. Lin Cheng, vice director of BIT Electric Vehicle National Engineering Laboratory. “Pro/ENGINEER has made a valuable contribution to the design of electric vehicles for the Olympics. We believe that Pro/ENGINEER will continue to play an important role in the R&D at our Electric Vehicle National Engineering Laboratory and the development of new energy automobile technology in China.”
Pro/Engineer for students
The BIT Department of Vehicle Engineering has used Pro/ENGINEER as part of its teaching curriculum and research since 1998. The institute has also produced its own Pro/ENGINEER teaching materials for undergraduate and graduate students. Many teachers and students now use Pro/ENGINEER at Electric Vehicle National Engineering Laboratory and have played an important role in the design of Olympic Electric Buses.
“We were delighted to work with BIT for the R&D of electric buses for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Beijing Olympics not only created great opportunities for the demonstration and promotion of new energy vehicles in China, but also elevated standards for product development and manufacturing in the country. PTC will continue to work with China’s education institutions and companies to support their efforts to improve innovation and manufacturing capabilities,” said Gregory Bachman Sisk, senior director, Asia Pacific & Emerging Geographies Education Programs, PTC.
“Creating vehicles that do not rely only on fossil fuels and take into consideration environmental impact is a high priority for automakers around the world,” said Kenneth Honroth, senior vice president of Greater China, PTC. “The advancements that BIT has made in this field using Pro/ENGINEER and the subsequent successes of its electric vehicles at the Beijing Olympics are major achievements toward creating mainstream, reliable transportation that meets ‘green’ technology standards.”