MSC Software Corporation

Overview:
The German classification society Germanischer Lloyd is using MSC Patran as the foundation for their industry-specific solution GL/ShipModel. Through customization based on the MSC Patran pre-processor, GL/ShipModel enables pattern-based semi-automatic modeling of ship structures while taking into account specific shipbuilding modeling needs. Tailored to the shipbuilding engineering process flow, the program's functionality is saving time-up to 30%-and cost, and increasing quality. VPD tools from MSC Software are helping Germanischer Lloyd meet safety requirements, and tight schedules while maintaining acceptable profit margins.Scenarios such as hurricanes and other extreme weather situations are codified in technical regulations and considered in the design and construction of a vessel.MSC Patran from MSC Software was used as a foundation for the targeted solution, providing both a high basic functionality and, with its open architecture, the best conditions for GL’s plans. The result is a system that offers scheme/pattern-based semi-automatic modeling of ship structures while taking into account specific shipbuilding modeling needs.

 

Overview:
Newman/Haas Racing uses the ADAMS/ Motorsport toolkit and ADAMS/Insight for vehicle system modeling and design of experiments (DOE) to optimize the setup trade-offs required to deliver a more competitive car. The methods provided by MSC.Software have produced a more intuitive understanding of the model and significant gains in runtime, and helped Newman/Haas Racing discover opportunities to further improve efficiency and output. Using test chassis set-up options in a virtual environment, Newman/Haas Racing can take best advantage of limited on-track practice and testing time.With a winged, ground-effect racecar producing a large amount of downforce, a constraint for a given spring rate and static ride height must be set high enough to avoid excessive contact with the ground at high speed. Conversely, for a given spring rate, the static ride height must be set as low as possible to produce maximum downforce. Therefore, the design space results in a band matrix factor that defines the area of normal operation and combinations not physically possible and not meaningful.Correlation between physical test data and analysis results ensures models represent the real world.ADAMS/Insight for vehicle and system modeling has proven to be an effective tool for efficiently producing a complex yet quantifiable understanding of model behavior. These methods have produced significant gains in runtime and understanding.

 

Overview:
Since 1932, the LEGO Group has been making a reputation for delivering quality products and experiences that stimulate creativity in children around the world. Today, LEGO makes software, watches, and clothing, as well as operates LEGOLAND them parks, but its core products are still the plastic bricks that made it famous. More than 1.4 million LEGO parts are produced every hour making up the 100 million LEGO sets produced annually. With this many parts, every part and every change, even small changes in material usage, have a tremendous impact on costs.Need to maximize safety, while minimizing time-to-market and costs.

• Reduced overall cycle time, from concept to finished part
• Reduced dependency on physical prototyping
• Eliminating costly changes to tooling
• Substantially reducing manufacturing costs

 

Overview:
The New Zealand company Matrix Applied Computing has successfully used Patran Laminate Modeler to generate flat patterns for strips of material quickly and effectively from a CAD model of a racing yacht. For racing yachts where stiffness and mass are of paramount importance, the draping simulation provides accurate material directions and hence more reliable stiffness optimization. The use of MSC Laminate Modeler is now an integral part of the company's design offerings. High-performance yachts are often made from expensive carbon-fiber reinforced pre-preg materials. These are typically supplied in rolls and are laid on male or female molds to form the skins of the boat hull. Because hulls are typically of compound curvature, the strips will overlap when laid over the hull unless they are trimmed. This trimming is typically done using preliminary paper patterns which are themselves draped over the hull and cut to size. This process is difficult and expensive, and introduces errors. A New Zealand company, Matrix Applied Computing, has successfully used MSC Patran Laminate Modeler to generate these patterns quickly and effectively from a CAD model. The specifications called for accuracies on the order of +/-1mm. With advice from experts at MSC Software, Matrix developed flat patterns for strips of material to be draped on a 16m hull section using MSC Patran Laminate Modeler. The draping simulation provided accurate material directions and hence more reliable stiffness optimization.

 

Overview:
Guardian Automotive uses Marc and MSC Software Professional Services in the development of glass products such as windows for the automotive industry. Simulation with MSC Software products enabled Guardian to try different temperature situations without interrupting the actual production process and to predict the behavior of the various materials both in different production stages and in their final use mounted in cars. The validated Marc simulations showed Guardian what the layout of the window should look like, and enabled them to demonstrate to their customers whether a certain heating system was suitable. As a result, Guardian benefited from increased efficiency and significant time savings. The manufacture of car windows is a complex production process, since several variable factors are involved. Manufacturer Guardian Automotive is developing simulation techniques to obtain an accurate prediction of how these factors will interact. These simulations are made with the aid of MSC Software. At a later stage MSC Marc was also used to simulate the glass bending process.

 

Overview:
The Italian manufacturer Invernizzi Presse employed Marc and Patran to improve existing presses and to develop new custom-made presses. They also used MSC Software tools to illustrate the functional performance of the presses to their customers. The combination of Marc and Patran was used for various contact analysis, mechanical safety structure analysis, and load calculations. Invernizzi engineers could try more design variants in less time and gained more accurate results than by using traditional mathematical calculation methods. As a result, Invernizzi realized significant time savings, and, while optimizing material usage, saved production costs.

• Before using MSC Marc, the development department of Invernizzi Presse used mathematical methods to do the calculations for the presses. These methods were time-consuming and less precise because only a certain number of design variations could be tested.
• The production of a physical prototype would be impossible due to cost and time restraints.

Invernizzi Presse now uses the combination of MSC.Marc and MSC.Patran in a variety of applications, including:

• Contact analysis between pivot, bearing, and connecting rods to evaluate the flex/bending stresses in the pivot, the contact pressure on the bearing, and the resulting rod stiffness.
• • Contact analysis between the presses’ pivot, bearing and rod, along with the backlash of the pivot, in order to understand the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the bearing. Invernizzi engineers found that the heat generated by the friction between the parts increased the temperature of the mechanical components, breaking the oil film and seizing the mechanism. With this knowledge, the design was modified to improve performance.
• • Mechanical safety structure analysis. The MSC.Marc model allows engineers to study the mechanical behaviour of the safety system used on all types of presses. The analysis uses flexible contact elements and an external force representing the oil pressure.
• Epicycloidal analysis (study of a multi-stage gear transmission system). This simulation allows Invernizzi engineers to evaluate the stresses in complex gear systems in order to optimise the gear dimensions, avoid gear failure during duty cycles, and extend the life of the mechanism.
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• Load calculation during the bending process in order to understand the correct force needed to obtain the correct bending of the material.

Using the results of these simulations, Invernizzi can demonstrate the functional performance of a press without having to build a physical prototype, illustrating to its customers that the press will fulfill the requested tasks.

 

Overview:
Draper Laboratory used MSC EASY5 to provide the graphical user interface (GUI) and infrastructure for a collaborative Virtual Product Development environment in the development of missile guidance systems. The open architecture of MSC EASY5 improved the collaboration by providing a direct link to other popular simulation tools, such as MATLAB/Simulink. Using MSC EASY5, Draper Labs reduced the high costs of testing very complex electromechanical systems by cutting simulation time from weeks to hours.Physically testing a missile guidance system is time-consuming and expensive. Add to this the need for collaboration between prime contractors and subcontractors, and the process becomes very complex and even more time-consuming. The simulation uses very detailed processor models, accepting binary code like an embedded processor and replicating its behavior. The rest of the system can be modeled around the processor. When a simulation is run, the software developer can actually look at how many clock cycles it takes to execute the code.

 

Overview:
In order to reduce the cost of testing their airbag restraint systems, ASL is using Virtual Product Development tools such as MSC Dytran. MSC Dytran offers the advantage of coupled Euler-Lagrange analysis, allowing combined structural and gaseous fluid simulation. Contact analysis is very important in simulating an airbag deployment, and MSC Dytran provides a number of options for defining contacts. For ASL, MSC Dytran has proven to be a robust tool that can be applied to the design optimization of vehicle occupant restraint systems for both crash and out-of-position scenarios, which are relevant to the restraint system designs of the future.The cost of testing airbag restraint systems is growing, because government and industry regulatory groups are phasing in testing requirements for a wide group of drivers and occupants including large males, small females, and children. Some of these tests involve out-of-position (OOP) testing without safety belts. MSC Dytran provides coupled Euler-Lagrange analysis, allowing combined structural and gaseous fluid simulation. The Lagrangian method is used for structural components that may undergo large deformations and for which the dimensions, deformed geometry, and residual stress state are of major importance.

• The benefit of the Lagrangian solver is that the displacements, deformations, and stresses in structures can be monitored with a high degree of precision.
• The benefit of the Eulerian method is that complex material flow can be modeled with no limit to the amount of deformation.

 

Overview:
Autoliv, the world's largest manufacturer of automotive safety equipment, has developed side-curtain airbag systems by using MSC Dytran to similate the dynamic events that occur during inflation, such as gas flow and enclosure impact stiffness. MSC Dytran provides Autoliv with an effective tool to study OOP (out-of-position) scenarios, enabling engineers to identify and quantify the impact of numerous design variables. The software provides real value in terms of reducing the time and overall development effort required, compared to conventional prototype build and test methods.Simulating airbag deployment is a complex and labor-intensive process, including meshing of the material and folds, analysis of fluid flow, and dynamic stresses on the enclosure. Using MSC Dytran, the engineers at Autoliv were able to pinpoint the key contributing variables and isolate them for optimization.The software provides real value in terms of reducing the time and overall development effort compared to conventional prototype builds and testing.

 

Overview:
Boeing is responsible for design, development, construction, and integration of the International Space Station (ISS) - Integrated on-orbit from a series of segments transported up to the Station by the Shuttle. MSC ADAMS was used for functional verification of the attachment interface mechanisms, which required a thorough representation of the contacting geometry. The MSC ADAMS solid-to-solid contact force statement allowed simulation of the segment-to-segment attachment including various combinations of contact feature misalignment. The analysis reduced contact model development and helped Boeing minimize the possibility of introducing an error by providing stable, accurate solid-to-solid models.The segment-to-segment attachment interface includes ready-to-latch indicators, coarse and fine alignment guides, a capture latch, and supporting interface structure. Each of the contacting elements was idealized as one or more of the following contact representations: sphere to plane, line to line, line to arc, sphere to cone, sphere to torus, sphere to cylinder, arc to interior of cone, and arc to exterior of cone. Each of the contact equations was resolved to a pair of points representing the minimum distance between any two contacting elements.Model validation was accomplished using component-level tests of the contacting features. Testing was performed on the coarse guides, fine guides, and the capture latch. Testing was performed by slowly moving the contacting elements together while measuring test table strut displacement and force. The results of the tests were then compared with simulation results.

 

Overview:
Moeller GmbH, a major innovator in switchgear and safety solutions for a wide range of industries, used MSC ADAMS for studies and calculations in new switchgear development, and to analyze improvements in existing products. Moeller engineers performed various tests on the same virtual model, inlcuding forces and load calculations, resulting in fewer physical prototypes and high-speed recordings. Thanks to MSC ADAMS, Moeller reduced the development time of new and modified products and improved the quality of existing products.In order to effectively protect machines and engines, the circuit breakers must operate as predicted and therefore must be tested beforehand. Experimental hardware tests of circuit breakers require the building of a realistic prototype including all essential sub-assemblies and all necessary materials, making these tests laborious, time-consuming and expensive. Before using computer-aided engineering (CAE) software, the AE engineers performed motion analyses of their switches using high-speed video recordings of the physical prototype. Static calculations were done manually with functions and loads - a demanding and tedious method, and a major handicap in the field of advanced engineering.Since computer-aided design (CAD) software was already in use at Moeller for switch development, it was a logical step to implement CAE software for functional analysis of the switchgear. Among several software packages, MSC ADAMS was chosen to be the most suitable for multibody simulation because it enables the engineers to perform a complete analysis of the assembly as well as dynamic calculation of the loads.

• Higher overall quality of the product could be improved
• Results are more accurate and faster
• The MSC ADAMS post-processor offers significant plots and animations, which quickly reveal the right development direction.
• With precise results, management can come to their decisions more quickly and with more confidence
• The number of hardware prototypes can be significantly reduced

 

Overview:
Sikorsky, a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced helicopters, reduces design bottlenecks by using implicit nonlinear for contact analysis. The integrated solutions from MSC Software allow Sikorsky to perform contact analysis and get an accurate estimate of the true buckling strength of their structures with minimal software training.

 

Overview:
With sales of 137 million Euros in 2011, Armor is one of the leaders in producing inked ribbon used in thermal transfer printing for product identification and other applications. Ribbon is produced by applying ink to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film in a web coating process in which the speed, tension and position of the web and other variables must be closely controlled in order to ensure the highest possible quality while maximizing throughput.

• Increased machine productivity by 20%
• Achieved optimal coating conditions
• Increased quality

 

Overview:
Physical testing of prototypes is mainly used as a last check before a new design is approved, providing correlation between simulation and the actual results. Because of the success that Beacon Power has achieved by utilizing simulation early in the design process, most of the companies engineers are being trained in simulation, using MSC Patran and MSC Nastran, which results in a stronger technical organization, directly impacting both the product and processes, lowering costs and improving the final product.With a 150 lb. rotor spinning at an angular speed in the mid 20 KRPM range, stress, vibration, safety containment and thermal issues all must be addressed when designing a flywheel energy storage system. However, developing prototypes for physical testing is time and cost prohibitive.To improve design efficiency, MSC Patran, MSC Nastran, MSC Dytran, were deployed to simulate problems before incurring the expense of prototypes and physical testing. As a side benefit, Beacon Power improved its designs, while reducing material costs 50%.

Overview:
The high up-front cost of product development was hindering the development of an innovative energy absorbing bus bumper system conceived by Talfourd-Jones Inc., parts makers for leading original equipment manufacturers. By retaining the simulation services of MSC.Software Professional Services, Talfourd-Jones Inc. was able to test and prove the concept for the bumper system before investing in the tooling required to produce the technology.

The bumper must protect the bus from any damage as a result of 6.5-mph direct impact into a rigid barrier and a corner impact from a common carriage. In addition, the bumper must return to pre-impact shape within 10 minutes of the impact. The primary system for meeting the impact requirements is through energy absorbing bumpers mounted on the front and rear. To meet this requirement, the Reflex bumper was designed to progressively collapse, cushioning the vehicle from a collision. Following impact, the bumpers return to their original shape without permanent damage or degradation in strength.

• Easy to adapt for a modular design, minimizing tool costs and allowing easy installation for the bus service departments.
• Easily modified, so the design can be tailored to other energy absorbing requirements by modifying cell wall thickness.
• Easy interface with support beam, by incorporating a simple tongue for insertion into beam groove.
• Provides a strong vertical support for front bumper step requirements.