Projects

Develop Unicell's QuickSider - Canada's first 100% battery operated electric delivery vehicle. The QuickSider is a collaboration between Unicell Ltd, ArvinMeritor and Purolator Courier, and it represents the state-of-the-art in both green-thinking and courier operations.

The vehicle was designed, built and tested right here in Canada by Unicell. TSI has been privileged to be a core member of the development team for over five years with lead roles in all areas of the vehicle development including: overall project management, competitive benchmarking, vehicle packaging, design, simulation, safety and commissioning testing.

The composite construction of the QuickSider was an excellent application for TSI's optimization-based design methods. Using HyperWorks and OptiStruct technology, along with solid engineering know-how, we were able to both develop the vehicle structure and also pre-qualify it for in-service use. CAE was used during the initial stages to drive the design direction and subsequently to optimize the structure with respect to weight, cost and performance to meet the design goals. MotionSolve models have been developed to simulate vehicle dynamics and ride performance as well as to facilitate calculation of suspension loads on the vehicle.

LS-Dyna simulations were used to evaluate and develop the fundamental crash-energy management characteristics of the vehicle as well as the basic occupant restraint systems.

A ground-breaking vehicle was developed and built from scratch in under one year, and is still performing today. As key members of the development team our engineers were able to provide full-service support to Unicell throughout the project.