Ken Smith, Author at Adaptive Corp

26 Sep 2018

Electric Vehicles, Tire and Rubber, Transportation & Mobility Ken Smith 0 comment

Tire Science & Technology Roundup

Innovation is disrupting every aspect of business and industry. The tire industry is no exception. New technologies include the internet of things (IoT), electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles. Innovations are pushing tire designers to create new products with embedded technology. These new technologies are already in use and are impacting the automotive industry. How will these trends impact tire development? How will external factors like recycling, sustainability, impact the product lifecycle? What software and SaaS solutions will make your job easier?

Let’s take a look at the trends driving innovation in the tire industry.

Alexa, do my tires need air?

Tire pressure indicators are standard equipment on automobile tires. They’re useful devices as long as you don’t ignore them. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. There’s nothing worse than waking up on a cold winter morning and your tire is flat. Wide area networking (WAN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies will extend tire pressure monitoring beyond the vehicle.

Connesso is a new remote tire monitoring technology from Pirelli. Connesso sends tire maintenance data to the vehicle’s owner via their “Pirelli Cloud” smartphone app.

Pirelli says this new technology recognizes each individual tire via an identification code. They can monitor a tire’s status from when the tire is manufactured to when it is recycled. It monitors tire pressure, temperature, static vertical load, and tire wear. It even keeps track of the number of miles each tire travels.

“Connesso is able to send data to the driver (wirelessly) about the status and maintenance needs of every tire,” said Kevin Hinton, Prestige Activation Manager at Pirelli. “The sensor is connected to the “Pirelli Cloud” and to a smartphone app. The sensor weighs just a few grams and has no effect on the physical performance of the tire.”

Source: Tire News (Canada)

IoT is also being used by Continental to track fleet tire performance. ContiConnect uses Vodafone’s IoT SIM technology to collect tire pressure data for commercial fleets. Every time a truck returns to the fleet terminal, it displays tire performance data in a web portal.

The ContiConnect systems help fleet maintenance managers view data from anywhere. This reduces the need to check the pressure of individual tires.

The service sends a text message and email alerts if a tire issue is identified.

“Fleets no longer have to rely on performing tire pressure checks on tens, hundreds, or even thousands of tires on their vehicles,” said Paul Williams, EVP, Commercial Vehicle Tires in the Americas, Continental. “With ContiConnect, they will know immediately upon returning to the fleet terminal whether any tires have low pressure. Leveraging the Internet of Things saves fleets time and money by protecting their tires, and improves safety for everyone who drives on the roadway.”

Vodafone’s IoT Director Stefano Gestaut said, “This is a great example of how IoT can make real world differences in so many unexpected places. This ensures that truck drivers experience fewer tire-related breakdowns and accidents – making the roads a safer place to be for every vehicle user.”

Source: IOTRevolutionWorld.com

Tire Industry RFID Applications

Remote monitoring can also have a big impact in the tire manufacturing process. RFID tags are miniature radio transmitters. They send radio signals short distances to receivers. These tiny devices are also found in automated toll systems now used on highways and bridges. In the tire industry, RFID tags are attached to rubber or dipped mesh materials.

Processing and mixing — RFID labels attach to the big bags of chemicals and rubber.

Tire manufacturing equipment and machine parts — Stores tire identification data in a database.

Mold management — RFID tags attach to segments, bead rings, container, and molds. The tags create a child/parent relationship between the components. This relationship makes it easy to count the sequence of the segments within the mold.

Material flow within the factory — Attach RFID tags to a carrier material. Material flows are transparent and easy to locate within the factory.

Tire lifecycle monitoring — Vulcanized RFID tags monitors the complete lifecycle of the tire.

RFID tread labels — Addresses logistics challenges such as first-in, first-out and inventory management.

RFID tags also help record proof-of-delivery, store inventory, and matching tires to end-users to support the recall process.

Source: Rubber and Plastics News

Electric Vehicle Tire Trends

Plug-in electric vehicles (EV) are poised to make a huge impact on the automotive industry over the next twenty years. According to GlobalData, a data and analytics company, electric vehicles are set to bring a significant transformation to the automotive industry.

The electric vehicle is one of four items that are disrupting the legacy automotive industry – joining the connected car, autonomous driving technology, and transport-as-a-service.

This doesn’t come as a surprise, as EV adoption rates are climbing throughout the world. Additionally, all three other items are set to revolutionize several fields, most notably the safety aspect brought on by the autonomous driving technology. The latest report by GlobalData titled Electric vehicles – Thematic Research report that globally, there are now only 3 million electric vehicles on the roads, this could rise to a staggering 300 million by 2040.

Source: Inside EVs

But what effect will this growth of EVs have on the tire industry?

There are many factors to consider when designing tires for EVs. Durability will be a key factor due to the weight of the battery packs. Electric motors produce higher torque wearing tires out 10-30 percent faster.

A Goodyear spokesman said people drive about 10 trillion miles a year. That’s expected to double by 2030 thanks to emerging automobile trends. These trends are favorable for tire makers. For instance, electric vehicle sales will need 57 million tires by 2020.

Durability will be a key demand because EVs are heavier thanks to their battery packs. The spokesman said they also have a higher torque going to the wheels from electric motors. EV tires will wear out 10-30 percent faster than tires on internal combustion engines.

“As we look ahead to what’s required in future mobility, we’re planning for the curve in the road ahead, and we’re working with the OEMs to be ahead of that curve,” the Goodyear spokesman said. “Our anticipation is to be on those next-generation vehicles that will come to our dealers’ stores, just like they’re coming today.”

Requirements of EV Tires

Durability — Electric Vehicles (EVs) produce more torque. Tires need to be more durable.

Weight — Electric vehicles are heavier. Sidewalls need to be stronger.

Improved efficiency — Tires need less rolling resistance to increase range between charges.

Low noise — Electric vehicles are quiet so tires need to be quiet too.

From Driving to Riding—Future Vehicle Technologies

Autonomous driving (AD) vehicles are coming. Driverless vehicles will have a major impact on the automotive industry and society. The push for AD vehicles is being led by safety advocates. Over one million deaths occur on the world’s roadways every year. Over 50% of those deaths involve human error according to the Smithers Rapra market report “The Future of Autonomous Vehicles and the Impact on Tire Markets to 2026.” Tires are a major component in the AD of the future since they maintain contact with the road. They will also contain various sensors to detect and report road conditions.

Continental’s CEO Elmar Degenhart explains: “Tires will become a key part of our sensor network in the car. On this basis, we are working on a complete system for anticipatory driving that is able to learn.”

Safety features will also be important on AD vehicles. For instance, run-flat tires will be standard on all autonomous vehicles. The report predicts tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) will be mandatory by 2026.

Source: Tire Review

Look ma, no air – future tires to be 3D printed from sustainable materials

According to Michelin, the worldwide recovery rate of tires is 70% and the recycling rate is 50%. Today, Michelin is investing in research to boost the recovery rate to 80%. They recently acquired Lehigh Technologies, specialists in high-technology micro powders created from recyclable tires. Michelin will expand their usage of micronized rubber products (MRPs). These products cut down on non-renewable materials like elastomers and carbon black.

Michelin launched the VISION program to develop a new type of tire. Their goal is to produce a 3D printed solid tire made of 100% recyclable materials.

The features of the VISION concept are:

An airless tire made of bio-sourced and recycled products
A connected eco-system within the tire, providing services and advice to the driver
A bio-degradable tread that can be renewed with a 3D printer

Source: A Future VISION from Michelin

New tire technologies make a positive impact on the economy and the environment

Improvements in product design, testing, and simulation software boost the product design process. Auto and tire companies are developing products in shorter time cycles. Consumers are responding to more choices with higher spending. But unlike the industrial revolution companies are not polluting or destroying the environment. In fact, these renewable materials will have little impact on our fragile environment.

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Additional Tire and Science Resources

Recorded Webinar:

Digital Twin Workflows for Elastomer Durability
The Adaptive Corporation and Endurica recently hosted a discussion of recent tire testing and simulation developments. The Digital Twin add-on enables incremental/multi-step fatigue analysis workflows, as well as the calculation of remaining life.

The webinar includes a conceptual introduction to the analysis of multistep duty cycles, as well as practical applications including:

Offshore Flexjoint
Transmission Mount
Tire Under FMVSS Durability Test Conditions

21 Aug 2018

Humanetics | 3D Printing | Adaptive Corp.

3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Transportation & Mobility Ken Smith 0 comment

Crash Test Dummies Featured in Thomas Industry Video

Humanetics ATD, a manufacturer of crash test dummies is making a big splash in the Additive Manufacturing press. Adaptive featured Humanetics and their elderly dummy in a recent case study. The article described how they used the Markforged Mark II 3D printer and the ONYX material in the manufacturing process.

Thomas Industry Updates produced their own video starring our beloved elderly crash test dummies.

Watch the video taking the additive manufacturing industry by storm.

09 Aug 2018

3DEXPERIENCE Ken Smith 0 comment

On Demand Webinar: Collaborate, Innovate and Design with 3DEXPERIENCE

This on-demand webinar demonstrates how current SOLIDWORKS and CATIA V5 users can try out the 3DEXPERIENCE platform with a free Business Innovation License.

See how you can use the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform to improve the product development process by using the many apps in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

Learn how to:

Collaborate in social communities
Create custom dashboards
Store and share data in a central location
Track social media feeds
Allow non-CAD users to view CAD data
Order 3D printed parts from 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace

View On-Demand Webinar

16 Jul 2018

3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing Ken Smith 0 comment

Modern Machine Shop Reprint: Toolmaker uses 3D printing to produce composite workholding fixtures

Read how an Adaptive customer solved their production bottleneck challenges with 3D printing in a recent article published on the Modern Machine Shop website.

Elliott Tool is a tube tool and burnishing product manufacturer located in Dayton, Ohio. They were having difficulties keeping up with the demand for custom fixtures and dies to meet their customer orders. They turned to Markforged and their Mark Two 3D printing system to ease their production bottleneck. They were so impressed with the lightweight ONYX material they began using 3D printing for their end use parts.

Consumer Goods: Moving at the Speed of Social Media

Customers today can be fickle. Our attention spans—conditioned by years of bite-size news, messages, video clips, and posts—are notoriously short. It’s both a boon and a hazard to manufacturers of consumer goods that the power of social media can make trends viral in the blink of an eye—and discards them just as quickly. Today’s hot product is tomorrow’s “over it” post, and brands have to be quick to respond to stay relevant.

That’s why manufacturers with hopes of competing in the global marketplace must be able to communicate, design, and produce faster than ever before. They have to deliver not just at the speed of today’s global business, but at the pace of social media.

Of course, most manufacturers aren’t merely watching cultural trends go past and hoping to jump on the merry-go-round, they’re also being bombarded with opinions, feedback, criticism, kudos, and requests for help. Their customers around the world are demanding safe, high-quality, and timely products. And most manufacturers are handling all of that while also dealing with a multitude of internal, disconnected systems. It’s an ever-increasing challenge to imagine, design, and deliver innovative consumer goods, especially for small to medium-sized businesses.

The Communication Challenge

Manufacturers don’t typically establish their operations with a fully planned, cohesive network of information. Instead, they tend to grow from tiny operations, adding on software systems and databases of information as necessary to house a litany of ideas, specifications, CAD models, and more. It’s an organic means of growing a business that tends to result in siloed information in a variety of disconnected systems—and difficulty in maintaining a single, shared vision.

Disconnected islands of information make it difficult to design and manufacture products quickly, much less to be agile enough to design and produce a product based on customer feedback. But that’s where a single, integrated platform can be a manufacturer’s game-changer.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Solution

A product lifecycle management (PLM) platform can form the basis of a manufacturer’s operations. With multiple components seamlessly integrated together—everything from 3D CAD software, project management, simulation, and manufacturing—you can sustain and preserve all of your operational data in one place. The “single source of truth” allows you to exchange data with such widely flung and disparate groups as R&D, production, procurement, marketing, and even customers.

In fact, PLM leader, Dassault Systèmes has developed My Product Portfolio, a unique solution designed for consumer goods companies based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This solution takes advantage of cloud-based technology to provide a solution for global manufacturers. The solution gives product managers the ability to track customer requests (features) from inception through production—providing an unparalleled opportunity for follow-through and customer satisfaction. Internal teams can engage customers, gather insights, conduct user studies and product tests—then store the information where it can be accessed by any party involved in the product lifecycle. The same is true for design data, marketing information, production schedules, and more. An integrated PLM platform isn’t merely one source of truth, it’s also one source for communication, innovation, and collaboration.

The Bottom-Line Benefits

A solution like My Product Portfolio makes it easy for small and medium retail goods manufacturers to collaborate and produce with the resources of much larger corporations. It provides a collaborative cloud-based system that ensures better communication between all stakeholders. A project management solution for tracking product enhancements and changes throughout the manufacturing process. More efficient engineering and simulation tools reduce the need for physical prototypes. Shortening development and production time. All of these tools improve business processes to save money and accelerate new product time-to-market. No longer do manufacturers have to look at “right, fast, and cheap” and only choose two. With the right tools, they can make the product right for the customer, deliver it fast—at the speed of cultural trends and social media—and save money through collaboration and increased communication.

25 Jun 2018

Additive Manufacturing, Metrology Ken Smith 0 comment

Improve Inspection Productivity with Robotic 3D Scanning Solutions

In order to stay competitive, manufacturers are pressured to develop more complex parts in less time. These part designs, in turn, require more sophisticated measurement and inspection processes to meet quality standards.

Today, QA organizations are looking for three primary advantages:

They want portability. Meaning, they want to make 3D measurements wherever you need to go. Not limited to the lab.

They want true accuracy. That is, they need accurate measurements in real-life operating conditions.

And they also want simplicity. They need solutions designed to provide accurate measurements with a simple, efficient measurement process.

Now, thanks to CREAFORM, 3D scanning systems can augment existing Metrology assets with accurate and consistent results.

Adaptive supports two primary applications: first article inspection compliance (FAI) and reverse engineering.

The MetraSCAN 3D-R is a new robot-mounted optical 3D scanner for automated inspections on production floors. This self-contained system is designed for high-volume, 24/7 operations and requires minimal operator involvement. Even at production-floor speeds, the Metrascan 3D-R maintains a 0.078 mm accuracy for parts between 0.3m and 10m in size. New features include a powerful R-System control console, auto-calibration system, and the C-track optical tracking bar. The Metrascan is compatible with inspection software from 3D Systems and Polyworks.

MetraSCAN 3D-R Automated 3D Inspection — The Metra-Scan 3D-R Automated 3D Inspection System

Learn More…

The CUBE-RTM is a turnkey automated 3D scanning CMM solution for at-line inspection. This automated 3D measuring machine features MetraSCAN 3D-R, a powerful robot-mounted optical 3D scanner that can be integrated into factory automation systems without compromising on accuracy. The CUBE-R can inspect hundreds of parts a day, including complex designs. One of the keys to the systems high-productivity output is the controller’s ability to multitask. The system offers simultaneous operation of data acquisition and analysis to generate an uninterrupted measurement flow.

Learn More…

Thanks to the CREAFORM Academia package, 3D scanning and inspection processes can now be taught in class and used for research. Designed to be used in engineering courses, the Academia kits include portable 3D scanners, inspection and reverse engineering software, teaching kits, video tutorials, sample datasets, and five-year customer care programs.

CREAFORM Academia Solutions for Teaching and Research

Learn More…

31 May 2018

3DEXPERIENCE Ken Smith 0 comment

Get Seamless Collaboration Capabilities With New VR Simulation System

A new breakthrough in 3D solutions makes it possible for companies to connect distributed teams, reduce travel costs, and allow instant collaboration—with a single click. The Immersive Collaboration Experience (ICE), part of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, allows multiple individuals working in CATIA to seamlessly move from the CAD program to “touring” the 3D design in virtual reality (VR).

What sets CATIA’s ICE functionality apart from other solutions used in the industry is its complete integration into the 3D platform. An individual can work in CATIA, message a collaborator through the 3DEXPERIENCE system, and send a co-review invitation. Both collaborators put on headsets, pick up wands, and simply click to launch the collaborative VR experience. Unlike other arrangements where moving from a 3D design to a VR solution can require multiple pieces of software and a file conversion process, ICE requires only one click to move from a CATIA 3D design to VR and back again. In addition, ICE works for all data brought into the CATIA platform—whether original designs, imported CAD files, scanned data, and simulation results.

Even better, design changes made in CATIA appear in the VR environment in real-time, meaning one collaborator can exit VR and make a quick change, which the other collaborator can see and comment immediately. The system is optimized for two collaborators—both will have avatars in the VR scene, and ICE can run on either cloud or on-premise sessions—but as many as four individuals can participate in the VR session, and each will have his or her own user ID.

When participants are in the VR session, they have a full range of movement in the virtual 3D space—allowing for enhanced communication with natural gestures. “Goto” commands allow users to teleport to any location in the scene, including another collaborator’s view. When that happens, or any time one participant’s view gets close to that of another participant, avatars are “ghosted” or made invisible, so they don’t block the view of the model.

Watch Immersive Collaboration Experience Video

The VR solution also works smoothly with other components of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, such as the visual experience content collection (VCC), which has recently been enhanced to offer more out-of-the-box options. With VCC, designers have a wide range of materials available to apply to their designs. Mathematical algorithms form the basis of materials including leathers, fabrics, car paint, metals, plastics, carbon fiber, glasses, woods, nature, and stones. VCC also offers a variety of 3D environments that designs can be placed in for the VR session, from interiors such as warehouses to exteriors such as parks and street scenes. Designers can also import their own photos and/or environments to customize the 3D design, with no loss of performance in the VR environment.

ICE is a welcome addition to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s complete and streamlined solution for 3D design. With collaboration and a VR session—complete with realistic materials, textures, and environments—available at any time throughout the design solution via a single click, ICE enables multiple users to experience the same immersive design review in a shared world. The solution brings an enhanced spatial understanding of the product design to extended teams, no matter where they’re located, for faster, more accurate team decisions.

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