Driving the Future of the Automotive Industry
The automotive industry and its constant, changing trends require automotive suppliers to be well versed and aligned with the right digital software solutions.
Driving The Future Of The Automotive Industry
The automotive industry and its constant, changing trends require automotive suppliers to be well versed and aligned with the right digital software solutions. Due to various requirements heavily influenced by consumer demands and safety regulations, challenges can be tricky to tackle at times. As an end result, major errors can occur and may cause a delay in the most critical parts being delivered to the OEM. Face these challenges head on with our mCAD / eCAD software solutions that help you design, test, manufacture, and manage product data more efficiently. Our software products offer tooling features – including sheet metal fabrication, freeform / surface modeling, and wire harnessing – needed to design automotive parts right the first time.
Mobility in Automotive Manufacturing
We offer a complete suite of Siemens software solutions that help address challenges in the design and manufacturing process for automotive suppliers and OEMs. Our comprehensive software is build on the most modern architecture of any major CAD/CAM/CAE solution and enables design reuse – easing the need to use data from a previous software version or from an external platform. Our solutions include:
IN REAL LIFE
Dali & Samir Engineering
“…our product development costs dropped by 25 percent. The [use of] NX positioned us to achieve our goal of becoming an OEM’s first choice when it comes to exhaust systems and other sheet metal components.”
Shivaji Powar, Manager of Design | Dali & Samir Engineering
Growth through Quality – D&S’s motto – reflects the traits that have helped Dali & Samir Engineering prosper over the years. Since 1972, the company has been manufacturing sheet metal components and exhaust systems for OEMs. As an automotive supplier, D&S needed to shorten delivery times and hit ever-changing requirements. Unfortunately, it sometimes resulted into human error – causing problems during production. It was also difficult and time consuming to modify designs to incorporate change requests. “This was a problem,” explained Powar. “…our product development process typically involves a lot of back and forth with the customer. We needed to be able to swiftly make any modifications demanded.”
During the search for a more advanced CAD system, the company evaluated Siemens NX software and quickly noticed the user friendly interface and the ease of working in the platform. “NX had the functionality we needed for tool design, including parametric modeling as well as the ability to modify existing designs in a minimum amount of time using synchronous technology.” D&S was able to shrink the time needed to design a new tool – going from 4 days production to just 2 days. “The [use of] NX positioned us to achieve our goal of becoming an OEM’s first choice when it comes to exhaust systems and other sheet metal components.”
IN REAL LIFE
American Axle & Manufacturing
“The goal of AAM is to deliver power anonymously … meaning a driver cannot perceive how power is transmitted from the engine to the wheels and cannot hear or feel vibrations from the driveline. For an OEM, vibration-free driveline is an attribute that can be tied directly to higher quality rankings and better customer satisfaction.”
Glen Steyer, Executive Director of Product Engineering | American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM)
“We heavily rely on upfront finite element computer simulation of the product performance and noise / vibration characteristics,” explains Steyer. Two years prior, AAM recognized the need to migrate to a new CAE tool due to its legacy simulation system (I-deas) was being phased out. To determine how to move forward, the team defined requirements and capabilities needed to not only do what their predecessor did but also go from CAD design to FE model to simulation results – all within a day.
Since the team was already using NX CAD for design, they decided to look into the simulation capabilities of Simcenter (formerly NX CAE). Their choice proved to be a valuable investment. Immediately, the team was able to speed up their CAE process time, seamlessly transfer CAD data to the simulation team without translation errors, and create geometry-based FE models that could be automatically update if the CAD design was modified.
IN REAL LIFE
Euroform
“The duration of our designing process has decreased to roughly half the time it used to take us. Today, we can design a tool (depending on its complexity) in about 2-3 days.”
Istvan Harcsa, Tool Plant manager | Euroform
Euroform designs and manufactures an average of 150-170 different molding tools annually. As a leading manufacturer and tool supplier for the automotive industry, the company has embraced various CAD software since 1993. It wasn’t until 2011 when Euroform made the decision to transition entirely over to NX for creating 3D models, 2D drafting, and molding simulations. “By using NX, the duration of our designing processes has decreased to roughly half the time it used to take us,” says Harcsa. “Today, we can design a tool – depending on its complexity – in about 2-3 days.”
Since the transition, the company serves more customers than they did in the past, and getting bids out to their customers has been a painless task – easily assessing the models and drafts that are used by calculating the tool parameters and the required standard elements quickly. “This is why it’s crucial for us to make [NX] accessible to our engineers. After the bid phase, [we] start by designing the tooling house, shaping surfaces and cooling systems based on the 3D models received.” Once the team has reached the manufacturing stage, they rely on NX Mold Wizard (a cost-efficient development for molded plastic parts) to achieve precision and functionality. “We use NX to design and simulate the tool. Moreover, we achieve precision and functionality that results in a longer lifespan for our molding tools.”
INSTANT DEMO
MOLD BASE DESIGN IN 5 STEPS
Mold
Design
in NX
In this demo, Application Engineer Garrett Koch gives us the run on design a mold base in 5 steps by using a structured workflow.