Adaptive Corporation, in partnership with Sinclair Community College, has been awarded a contract by the US Air Force to develop a process that leverages Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and our experience with Carbon Fiber Composite 3D Printing. This project will develop a solution to predict the performance of 3D Printed propellers that will be used on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s).
Adaptive’s experience with Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform and Simulation, coupled with our Additive Manufacturing expertise based on the Markforged Carbon Fiber Composite 3D printers were recognized in this award. Adaptive will take propeller designs provided by Sinclair and develop a variety of 3D printed models with various infill and Carbon Fiber reinforcement. These designs will be simulated on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to predict real-world part performance.
At the same time, these parts will be 3D printed on Markforged printers. Afterward, Sinclair will perform laboratory tests of the physical parts. Adaptive and Sinclair will correlate the physical testing with the simulation output to develop an approach that can offer a high degree of accuracy for simulating these parts under real-world applications.
Tim Weatherford of Adaptive Corporation said, “…our goal is to perfectly predict propeller performance of 3D printed propellers for UAV applications in real-world environments. Our approach and toolset around Design for Additive helps engineering teams remove cost out of the process and shorten development cycles by designing right the first time.”
The quest for designing the optimal electric vehicle that is smart, safe, and connected and delivers a customized user experience is setting new standards in automotive benchmarks. The challenge is that many need to turn to new approaches in the engineering design process to design. validate, and deliver an intelligent vehicle experience. This requires new thinking and processes, along with a convergence of old approaches, and redefining performance and safety measures. Since this is a very new market place there is little historical data or experiences to learn from, those in it are carving out the product innovation advancements in real-time.
The automotive industry is riding this wave as carmakers compete to deliver vehicles that feature their latest innovations to capture consumers’ attention and business. As the Internet of Things continues to grow, companies are now inventing alternative transportation solutions that take advantage of intelligent city services to provide people with the best mobility experiences.
Smart, Safe and Connected solutions based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform deliver innovative technology that supports end-to-end digital continuity between the multiple disciplines involved in conceptual design and embedded electronics and software development of the intelligent car. Carmakers can address vehicle development using a systems engineering approach to manage the complex task of making cars smarter, safer and more efficient.
The two main areas of design focus that are completely different from combustion vehicles include the electric drive and the battery. A recent blog post on Dassault Systémes blog noted these design challenges:
The electric drive is a complicated system whose parts need to work together effectively and efficiently. These include the gear box and electric machine, which need to be designed carefully to avoid over-designing. Over-designing leads to excess material, weight and cost and system engineering helps to precise and balance targets like maximum torque, power and speed, in the context of the whole vehicle.
The design must fulfill requirements for performance, efficiency, thermal, noise and vibration, etc. It is key to include multi-disciplinary design explorations and optimizations in order to reduce the required time of the development cycle. Once the many components of the electric drive have been implemented, their performance must be verified against the targets defined by Model-Based Systems Engineering, or MBSE.
In addition to the electric drive, the battery is a vital part of an electric car – and it’s not simple to design, either, especially when considering temperature. Batteries are akin to humans in that they perform best within a certain range of temperatures. If a battery’s temperature is too high or too low, it can result in lower vehicle range or shortened battery life.
Batteries involve multiple and connected physics, making them tricky to design, but Dassault Systèmes is working on a solution that connects mechanical and system design, materials and chemistry modeling, and performance assessment of battery cells, modules and packs.
When a battery is evaluated along with the electric drive on a vehicle, engineers and manufacturers can get a real idea of the performance and range of the battery rather than relying on a test at a test cell. The battery performance can be tested with real load on the battery, enabling an accurate picture of how it will perform in the real world.
Adaptive sponsored a webcast with Digital Engineering to present insights on making difficult PCB design decisions that minimize electromagnetic interference (EMI) using CST Studio Suite, part of the 3DEXPERIENCE SIMULIA family. This webinar was held June 25, 2020.
About the Webinar:
As IOT products and devices get smaller and more powerful, it becomes challenging to balance the design goals, high speed, high density, low power, and reasonable cost.
Engineers must make delicate tradeoffs while keeping radiated emissions under control. Tune in this webcast to learn:
How critical PCB design decisions affect the total radiated power
How EMI simulations in the early design phase can prevent costly fixes later on
How to use CST Microwave Studio to conduct EMI simulation
Download the CST EMI Pack which includes: (1) Webinar replay: Electromagnetic Simulation for Design & Analysis of Antennas and MW/RF Components (1) Solving Design Challenges for Electric Vehicles White Paper (1) DesignCON paper on EMI
A recent ebook from Tech-Clarity, “Solving High Tech’s Top Six Critical Business Issues,” reinforces what many in the high-tech product development world know: it’s a tough marketplace out there. New technologies offer exciting opportunities for innovation, but they also create implicit requirements for companies whose success depends on responding to ever-changing consumer desires.
This is a particular challenge given that lack of response to market trends could mean irrelevance and even obsolescence. In the drive to make connected, smart products, the pressure is on to be first or early to the market to capture share, but also to deliver something new and exciting for the market. We are all aware of products we once used that are no longer in existence. I was an early adopter of the PalmPilot (several versions), now they are nowhere. One study projects that 50% of the current S&P 500 will be replaced over the next decade. It happens to the best of them… Polaroid, Prime, DEC, Wang, just to name a few. No one wants that to happen to their company.
What are the critical business issues that organizations need to address to prepare for the future? Tech-Clarity identifies six:
1. Taking cost out
It is noted that 70% of a product’s cost gets locked in during the design cycle. Are you using the right tools to fully optimize your design? Using a platform of simulation tools like 3DEXPERIENCE will help design teams fully assess a given design such as the best material, the ideal weight, the full load anticipated, hot spots on boards. Identifying these characteristics early in the design process will play a significant role in designing right the first time before producing a prototype.
Top Engineering Challenges in High Tech Source: Tech-Clarity
2. Avoiding quality problems
One solution to this is creating a single source of truth for data management. In a separate study, Tech-Clarity found that 20% of time engineers are not working with the right data. This is a big issue for high tech who have mechanical, electrical and systems engineers working on the same project. Using a collaborative PLM platform that manages all product data will enable greater team efficiency and reduce quality issues down the line.
3. Achieving shorter product development schedules
Productivity gains rarely happen by maintaining current processes. When the right process changes get put into place, significant gains can be realized. Creating a collaborative design process ensures that all the teams have access to the right data when it’s needed. In high tech, a combined ECAD-MCAD platform is the key to bringing all the pieces together to shorten the design cycle and mitigate risks by putting the right checkpoints in place. Tech-Clarity identifies that 23% of the time engineers spend their time just “looking” for the right information. This gets even more time consuming when companies have multiple systems to check. A platform approach like 3DEXPERIENCE can remove these roadblocks and increase the throughput of all involved.
4. Facilitating innovation
Being nimble and agile is critical for high tech companies due to the rapidly changing needs of their consumers. Many design teams need to pivot off a current design but improve on it and create more interesting capabilities. Managing across engineering disciplines is critical for facilitating innovation and enables cross-pollination of ideas. Having an ideation repository can help spur new approaches to old designs along with a platform that manages data and other information in one place to support real-time collaboration.
Cost Impact of Design Changes Source: Tech-Clarity
5. Ensuring performance and reliability
Heat and vibration are the two biggest culprits that cause performance and reliability problems. It’s important to work with a team who has deep experience with electromagnetic simulation such as low-frequency applications such as electric motors to high-frequency applications such as sensors and antennas. There are many aspects to setting up multiphysics models correctly, never mind understanding the tools behind them. The good news is when you do work with experienced consultants (like Adaptive), we can help establish a testing and analysis process from concept through to final validation phases. Further, the process will also document and incorporate these tests into your design process so that you know why decisions got made and have access to the supporting data behind it.
6. Compliance with environmental and regulatory requirements
Consumers are hot on environmental-friendly products, and high-tech companies have the opportunity to work with materials that are recyclable and have better sustainability. Beyond pleasing consumers, high tech companies need to make sure they are in compliance with RoHS and other local regulations as it relates to their product life and obsolescence. A strong PLM platform can help ensure that the right steps are documented and signed off to meet compliance regulations.
Overall, the eBook supports an integrated platform for PLM to bring together ECAD and MCAD systems, the mechanical, electrical and system engineering teams and their design processes. A single version of the truth for data and contextual information (2D and 3D drawings) need to be accessible and a fundamental building block for any product lifecycle management (PLM) platform. Implementing tools that will not only enable but also promote and even require collaboration and virtual simulation, among other functionalities, will enable companies to overcome many of the unique challenges faced by the industry.
If you want to learn more about how your organization can address these critical business issues with a powerful PLM platform that addresses many of these challenges, call us at (440) 257-7460 or click below to schedule a demo.
Check out SIMULIA on Wheels with the 3DEXPERIENCE tour coming to a location in the Midwest. Mark your calendar to check out the mobile playground which is touring from September – November 2019.
On the tour, you will find a playground of interactive experiences that showcases the power of simulation through a virtual replication of the real world, the “3DEXPERIENCE twin.” As your single source of truth, this enables simulation to be fully integrated throughout concept, design, engineering and manufacturing.
September 9th, 2019 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. DoubleTree by Hilton Akron-Fairlawn, Aspen Room
Join Adaptive at this special, complimentary event the day before the 38th Annual Meeting & Conference on Tire Science and Technology.
You’ll learn how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can address different tire design & simulation workflows.
Other discussion topics will include:
Tire footprint analysis with an integrated design and simulation process, tread meshing & material calibration, all using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform
Multiphysics topics including Tire Noise and Wet Traction (Hydroplaning, Wet Grip)
Improving tire simulation realism through workflows such as Heat Generation & Heat Transfer, Plunger Energy Test and Manufacturing Simulation
Registration begins at 8 a.m. The symposium will begin at 8:30 and end at approximately 5 p.m. Lunch will be provided.
Seats are filling fast. Act now to reserve your place and take advantage of this free event and see the most advanced approaches in Tire Engineering. The deadline for registration is September 5th, 2019.
July 18 Flightdeck Flight Simulation Center 1650 Sinclair Street Anaheim, CA 92806
Join us for our free workshop from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. in Anaheim. Register today.
Leveraging 3D Model Based Definition (3DMBD) Data in the Aerospace Supply Chain
Speaker: Randy Becker, Senior Quality Inspector, Aerospace OEM
Aerospace OEMs such as Boeing, Gulfstream and Bombardier are changing from a drawing-based authority to a 3D model-based paradigm. Although OEMs have seen substantial cost reduction by eliminating drawings, it has caused a huge impact to the aerospace supply chain. During this session.Randy Becker will present best practices on how to use 3DMBD data to streamline manufacturing operations and ensure OEM quality deliverables are met.
3DMBD – An Aerospace Suppliers Perspective
Speaker: Jamie Young, President, My Machine Inc.
During this presentation, Jamie will present how My Maine uses 3DMBD Data to manufacture, inspect and deliver machined parts to Boeing.
Automating In-Process Inspection with 3D Scanning
Speaker: Frank Thomas, Metrology Specialist, Adaptive Corp.
Speaker: Larry Kuehn, Quality Guru, Adaptive Corp.
In-Process inspection can be a time and resource consuming process. By incorporating Adaptive’s “Universal Metrology Platform,” customers can select a wide range of 3D scanning solutions for fast real-time in-process inspection of production parts. Attendees to this session will learn:
What is the Universal Metrology Automation (UMA) Platform?
What types of Robots does UMA support?
What do we mean by “real-time” inspection?
Is there any SPC data collected?
How do I compare the physical part to the CAD data nominal with tight tolerances?
*2 – 5 p.m. is an optional tour of the Flight Simulation Center: Experience the thrill of aerial maneuvers at 600 knots and air-to-air combat in an authentic military flight simulator. Feel what it’s like to take the controls of a commercial airliner in our Boeing 737 flight simulator.
performance of 3D Printed propellers that will be used on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s).
