Engineering

At J.L. French, we take our strong network of engineers and partner their talents with state of the art technology. This powerful combination not only satisfies the customer's needs, but it has driven the industry to higher levels in product performance and standards.

Program managers of each business unit, supported by plant and design engineers, lead the programs from concept through production launch while paying close attention to continuous improvement.

The core design team of 53 engineers utilize the latest in software capabilities such as:

• SDRC
• PRO-E
• UNIGRAPHICS
• CATIA

We perform F.E.A. testing using MSC products Nastran, Patran & Fatigue to enable us to support our customer's needs. We have recently introduced acoustics analysis software SYSNOISE to better assist our customers in achieving NVH design goals. Casting flow and solidification profile simulation using EKK and Magma software is an integral part of the product launch process.

Plaster based prototypes are used for manufacturing feasibility and design reviews both internally and with our customers to ensure proper fit and ease of manufacturing.

A Thermotron is used typically to simulate product transportation utilizing environmental and vibration to simulation to ensure our customer's product arrives in the same condition as shipped from our dock.
In addition, long-term durability and forced frequency response testing ensure a robust design.

Servohydraulic controlled static/fatigue product testing is used to ensure proper material properties. It also validates the design capability through destructive testing and gives us the opportunity to evaluate design iterations in conjunction with investigative tools such as thermal stress imaging. This allows us to quickly evaluate designs and correlate to analytical stress predictions, thus protecting our customer's performance requirements.

To ensure design intent, we test the frequency response of our products utilizing an array of sensors and sensitive frequency response scanners along with state of the art and industry standard software. By performing these tests on customer's final assembled engines and correlating to analytically predicted data we further validate our test results. Ultimately, we are instrumental in improving the acoustic noise associated with our products.

Active in process evaluation of process contaminants ensures our customer receives parts within their cleanliness specifications. This is a critical process identified by our customers to ensure long durability to their engines and transmissions.