60 Seconds with JLR on Noise, Vibration and Harshness

Ahead of our Noise, Vibration and Harshness Seminar on 22 May 2018, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers caught up with Sean Biggs, Principal Technical Specialist for Manual Transmissions and inline Automatic Transmissions at Jaguar Land Rover. Sean gave us an insight into his experience of the industry.

Q: Could you briefly explain your role and involvement in Noise, Vibration and Harshness engineering?

Sean Biggs: I’m a Technical Specialist in the application of Multi-Body System (MBS) simulation, and I’m lucky enough to work with a talented group of engineers applying the methods to understand our attribute performance. We work cross attribute with NVH being a significant proportion of the work we do.

Q: In your experience, what is the number one challenge facing engineers specialising in NVH?

SB: Time. A significant chunk of the system performance is inherently connected to architecture decisions taken. So we are constantly trying to understand the system as early as possible, so that should we have a cross attribute conflict, we still have time to change the system. If we get it wrong it invariably means a late change which is both costly and stressful.

Q: What is the most exciting development in this field at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?

SB: CAE being integrated into the delivery teams, i.e. not a separate team!

Q: What do you see for the future NVH measurement, testing and engineering over the next 5 – 10 years?

SB: Increased TEST/CAE integration. Effective CAE leading (not replacing) the development process will require more detailed testing to develop targets and better understand system performance.

Join Sean and other industry leaders from companies including Ford, Ricardo UK, Lloyds Register, BAE Systems and HORIBA MIRA amongst others at our Noise, Vibration and Harshness Seminar in May.