OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2020

88 Innovations / side door drive by Automotive Supplier Brose Flexible door opener By Nico Oertel, Manager Product Team Door Drives, Brose Group Automotive supplier Brose incorporated customer feedback into the development of its new side door drive. The result is more compact, lighter, more affordable – and offers consumers even more comfort. Comfortable vehicle access is playing an in- creasingly important role in the mobility expe- rience of the future. Brose’s vision: even froma distance the car recognizes and welcomes the driver with projections on the ground and in the vehicle windows. Users simply make a ges- ture to signal their desire to enter. The doors open automatically, while sensor technology prevents collisions. The steering wheel disap- pears into the dashboard and the seat contour adjusts automatically for a more comfortable entry. The family-owned company will make this seemingly futuristic scenario reality in the next generation of vehicles. At the heart of the access system is the power side door drive. Brose presented its first product concept in 2015. In the meantime, the drives are already being used in Uber’s self-driving taxis. High-volume production will start in 2021. The supplier had already presented an alternative drive concept in 2019, which was engineered to meet changing mar- ket requirements. To enable use in even more applications, the company reducedweight and package space – all while lowering costs. Brose achieved these objectives by signifi- cantly changing the manual operation of the side door: now the drive has a servo function to actively assist users. This makes manual operation easy, even on slopes or at an an- gle. Design improvements have slashed the product’s weight from 1,800 to 1,200 grams. Moreover, the drive is now much more compact: for example, the installation depth has been reduced by around 30 percent and the motor can be installed at various angles. Since there are no additional moving parts in the door, the product can be used flexibly – in narrow installation spaces or in conjunction with win- dow regulators that are installed at an angle, for instance. Measures to optimize motor and drive acoustics ensure low-noise operation. Fewer components, 90 percent of which are part of amodular system, make the newBrose side door drive more robust – and much more affordable than the first version. Customers can choose the range of features they need: automatic opening and closing, the servo function and a variable door check are always included as standard. Brose also offers the door drive with an optional inte- grated control unit that makes it easy to in- tegrate into existing electronics architectures via “plug&play”. Customers can also decide whether the drive should include a full-fea- tured brake. Alternatively, the motor can take over this function as long as the product re- ceives current. Its first application clearly demonstrates the tremendous flexibility of the new Brose side door drive: beginning in 2023 it will be built into a large-format electric SUV manufac- tured by a North American carmaker and of- fer even more convenient access to the trunk via a hatchback that opens to the side. The supplier’s first radar sensor will also enter se- ries production in 2023. This technology will make gesture recognition and collision protec- tion even more accurate than before – bring- ing the access experience of the future one step closer. Brose Group www.brose.com Website The Brose system for power side doors also makes manual operation more convenient and safer. An integrated radar sensor recognizes obstacles and suspends door movement before a collision occurs. Brose Group info@brose.com Contact Images: © Brose The new Brose side door drive sets benchmarks in space, weight and costs.