Using Ansys’ simulation software, Bengaluru based Ace Designers were successful in reducing their product life cycle time | By Indira Rao | In any product-based design industry, there are no straight forward solutions in designing sophisticated machines. The designers most of the time use knowledge acquired from previous design activities to create a new design. Thus, the product can be under or over-designed. Also, the fierce competition in producing precision machines within less cost and time does not give liberty to the designer to build prototypes and test before freezing the design.
For example, work holding parameters such as the number of jaws and chucking force are known to influence the roundness tolerance of ring shaped parts like bearing races. Likewise, these parameters influence tolerances on roundness and straightness while turning thin walled cylindrical components commonly used in automobiles. Experimental or trial and error methods are hither to used in practice for optimising the work holding parameters for achieving the desired part quality.
To be competent enough in the machine tool industry, it is very essential to provide quick solutions for any engineering problem in a stipulated time. And therefore, while in the journey of seeking a tool to solve the engineering problems using FEA techniques,Bengaluru based Ace Designers, choose Ansys Mechanical Software as it was robust,user friendly and compatible with CAD software’s such as Pro/E, CATIA, etc.
“Ansys Mechanical is the best alternative to perform analysis and check errors due to jaw clamping forces before selecting optimum number of jaws,” said SR Chandramouli,DGM – design and development,special products, Ace Designers. (The figure on the facing page shows the deformation pattern of the ring due to clamping force from jaws.)
Stating another example he refers to the interference/shrink fit analysis.Shrink fitting the sleeve on to the spindle with inappropriate interference value affects the performance of a spindle assembly. “Here we have made an effort to understand the behaviour of various values of interference and its effect on the practical performance as regards to machine tool spindle assembly application using the mechanical software,” added Chandramouli.
At Ansys, they bring about clarity and insight to customers’ most complex design challenges through fast, accurate and reliable simulation. Their technology enables organisations to predict with confidence that their products will thrive in the real world. “By simulating during the initial stages with the software, our customers become faster, more cost-effective and more innovative, realising their own product promise, which is exactly what happened with Ace,” averred BS Kiran Kumar, technical account manager, strategic services, Ansys India.
Talking about their association with Ace, Kumar said that initially they conducted a detailed research and found out the engineering challenges facing the machine tools industry. “We then brought them to a common forum and explained the strength and benefits of simulation in their kind of industry. During this interaction some companies came forward and showed interest in our solutions; Ace was one of them,” mentioned Kumar.
Understanding Ace’s requirements, Ansys gave them a complete solution for all their simulation requirements and value added services. “They were looking for a software which would be easy to use and learn and would effortlessly integrate with their CAD and PLM system. They were implementing this for the first time and hence wanted to be associated with a company that has an excellent technical team,” declared Kumar.
Chandramouli agreed, “We adopted the process of testing the products using virtual simulation technique at the design stage itself. All the mechanical parts designed are analysed using Ansys mechanical.This gives liberty to the designers to make changes before the product is physically built,tested in real time and commercialised.Thereby, enabling us to successfully reduce the product life cycle time.”
Any product which is designed precisely at the first attempt helps reduce the pain of building the prototype. “Thus, the cost and time involved in building the prototype,real time testing and performing design modification for the final product can be practically zero if the design is verified using Ansys software,” affirmed he.
Virtually every industry now recognises that a key strategy for success is to incorporate computer-based engineering simulation early in the development process, allowing engineers to refine and validate designs at a stage where the cost of making changes is minimal. In such a scenario, frameworks like Ansys Workbench platform work as an advanced engineering simulation upon which the industry’s broadest and deepest suite of technology can be built.
With bidirectional CAD connectivity,powerful highly-automated meshing, a project-level update mechanism, and other benefits the Workbench platform delivers unprecedented productivity, enabling simulation-driven product development.“Ace Designers have standardised on PTC platform for all CAD and PLM requirements.They were looking for a platform for FEA simulation which could be tightly integrated with PRO/E, wherein they could bring in CAD models without any data loss while simultaneously conducting advanced analysis such as nonlinear and dynamics with ease,” asserted Kumar.
He further added, “They were also looking for process automation, workflow capturing and parametric studies. Workbench provided them a platform for doing bi-direction changes, reusable templates,advanced analysis capabilities (Nonlinear,dynamics, coupled-filed, MBD, etc.) workflow streamlining, automation, knowledge capturing etc. All of this was accomplished by the Workbench Platform.”
Though Ace has experienced multifold benefits using the software, moving forward,it would now like for Ansys to come up with a modular approach in licensing schemes, and also to give them continued support in a similar manner in the future.