Fireside Chat: Why Engineers will be the key to unlock the digitilization potential at manufacturers

Digital Twin is enjoying a breakthrough, fueled by advances in the sophisticated use of physics-based simulation models of varying fidelities. Connected and informed by data from the field with the help of artificial intelligence, Leonardo S.p.A. validates the performance of product systems virtually in the early stages of design to accelerate the development of their next generation of products.

The door closing feel is directly experienced by the customer and is typically treated as a subjective functional attribute. Objective targets have also been identified and correlated with subjective feelings, even though the final sign-off happens based on subjective assessment. Door Closing is a complex function involving multiple subsystems, their behavior & interface across parts.

Dactem (a DAM group company), developer of specialist test, measurement and assembly solutions for the aerospace industries, presents an overview of the optimization of a thrust balance used for accurate measurements in electrical thruster qualification endurance testing. The presentation will provide details on how a Multiphysics simulation approach was used to find the optimum design taking mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic performance into account. Speakers: Emmanuel Pouleau, CEO, Dactem (a DAM Group company) Pierre Moutet, Engineer, Dactem (a DAM Group company) Duration: 15 minutes

Discover how Altair delivers an end-to-end platform that enables you to combine enterprise expertise with data and AI to build analytics applications and scalable automation – with or without code. Solving challenges in where multiple teams and skillsets are required to bring an AI and analytics project across the finish line. This breakout session by Sabina Stanescu, Senior Director, Product Management, Data Analytics, Altair, was presented at Future.AI in June 2021, and is about 20 minutes long.

Introducing HealthHub™, Alstom’s smart asset monitoring for optimized life-cycle cost. Its purpose is to gather and consolidate data in a single location, whereby applying business rules supports maintenance activities and asset operation.

Sustainable designs last longer. David Yáñez from Vortex Bladeless, a Spanish start-up, shares his vision of the technology, the strategies used for the integration of the different physical phenomena involved in the simulation-driven design, and the development of their resonating structures having minimal parts susceptible to wear by friction. The simulation results from CFD, with fluid-structure interaction, and electromagnetic field simulation are compared with experimental wind tunnel results and from in-service environments.

AI-powered real-time melt-pool analytics for accelerated product development and production.

What if you could create 1D simulation models that retain the precision of your 3D analysis while running up to thousands of times faster?

The Digital Twin concept is broadly applicable to all Altair customer base wanting to develop better products faster. We will explain how to maximize the value you can get from the Altair Platform for Digital Twins. We will illustrate how this solution helps diverse engineering teams develop better, more complex products faster by avoiding work in silos. This will include proven uses cases for the convergence of simulation and data.

Nowadays, many Machine Learning techniques able to identify dynamic models from data are taking hold. But, can we support the learning phase leveraging our expertise obtaining models with better generalization property? To tackle this need and others we have developed a novel approach, romAI. This application combines AI and system modeling techniques to generate reusable continuous dynamic models extremely time-efficient, hence used as Reduced-Order Models to speed-up system design and optimization or in Digital Twins/Simulators for real-time applications.

The costs of unscheduled downtime in manufacturing environments can be detrimental to operations. Altair makes it easy to monitor equipment health in real-time and predict failures. See how you can gain the insights your organization needs to avoid machine failures and unplanned downtime, increase equipment utilization and production line productivity, and reduce maintenance costs.

Evolving your product is becoming more and more complex. The market demands more features and better quality while demanding lower costs. SmartWorks brings a set of tools to help you collect data from your connected products, helps you build web and mobile applications that control your products, and ultimately empowers you to provide better service for your customers.

Altair products are quickly evolving into AI-driven products. Starting from the modeling and visualization products, the latest release of Altair HyperWorks includes features like shapeAI, which quickly finds and classifies parts “by shape” inside geometry files or finite element meshes - when you want to locate all of the bolts, shafts, and gears in a complex assembly - by applying machine learning.

Experience how Altair® SmartWorks™ gives you everything you need to quickly build scalable, secure web, mobile, and edge applications and then iterate fast to find product-market fit. This presentation, by Pérez Bello, Altair's Product Manager for SmartWorks originally aired at Future.AI in June 2021, and is a little over 11 minutes long.

Be one of the first to experience how Altair’s next-generation, cloud-native enterprise data ecosystem empowers everyone in the enterprise to harness the full power of artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Explore how the dynamic tools and collaborative environment enables teams across any organization to solve complex problems, accelerate transformation and drive business value. This presentation by Yeshwant Mummaneni, Senior VP, Analytics & IoT, Altair, aired at Future.AI in June 2021, and is about 11 minutes long. Empower everyone to make augmented, data-driven decisions. See how with SmartWorks. View all Future.AI 2021 Presentations

As the pace of innovation accelerates, Altair is driving the future of smart, connected everything through the convergence of simulation, HPC, and AI solutions. Join Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer James Scapa to explore what he’s learned over more than 35 years assembling the right team and technologies to deliver this convergence and why it’s the key to unlocking your data potential and accelerating your digital transformation. This keynote presentation aired at Future.AI in June 2021, and is a little over 18 minutes long. Explore how to operationalize analytics and AI with secure, governed, and scalable strategies. View all Future.AI 2021 Presentations

For several years now, co-simulation between Multibody Dynamics (MBD) codes like MotionSolve and Discrete Element Method (DEM) software like EDEM has been used for many applications such as vehicles and material transportation. One missing link has been a realistic tire model that not only could interact with the soil material in a realistic way but also show the influence of varying tire pressure, change in contact area and pressure distribution over said contact area.

For very soft material such as deep mud with a high-pressure tire, using a rigid wheel is a decent approximation. But for tires on harder surface, this method has several short comings. For example, a rigid representation of the tire will have neglectable rolling resistance while the pressure distribution on a real tire has its peak well ahead of the centerline of the tire producing a resisting moment to the motion. The contact patch area will in reality not depend on sinkage, but the sinkage is dependent on the contact area that is dependent on load and internal pressure.

This presentation introduces the new PM-FlexTire model that is integrated in EDEM and will work with MotionSolve. Requirements for creating and correlating the tire model is presented together with several application examples on mud, clay and gravel beds.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Jesper Slattengren, Technical Fellow, Pratt Miller

Duration: 20 minutes

The chassis of a the RAVO 5 iSeries street sweeper has been a proven design that has remained relatively unchanged since the mid-60’s. However, due to increasing weight and size requirements, as well as possible changes to the driving mechanism, an overhaul of the chassis platform is needed. To develop a new (modular) chassis, which is suited for upcoming and future changes, a CAE-driven design approach is chosen, which is being performed by VIRO. When using computer-aided engineering (CAE), the chief problem is to define or estimate the acting loads and / or boundary conditions on a structure. In case such a structure is dynamically loaded, such a determination is further aggravated. Furthermore, if that structure is a chassis, a wide range of load cases and interconnected systems (e.g. tyres, suspension) effect the multifaceted loading behavior.

By utilizing multibody dynamics (MBD) and creating a MBD-model of the current street sweeper, a first step is taken towards developing a new (modular) chassis. The calculated loads and moments acting on the suspensions and chassis are quantified for e.g. several worst case scenarios, which allows for well-founded decisions in relation to the new design. Furthermore, these load conditions can be used as input for future topographic optimizations and / or stress analyses. An important part, when creating a CAE-model, i.e. in this case a MBD-model, is the validation of that model by experiments and /or analytic formulations. Consequently several calculated load cases have been tested in the field and in mutual cooperation. A subsequent verification shows that the measured accelerations correlate well with the calculated accelerations from the MBD-model.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Thijs Romans, Group Leader Engineering Analysis, VIRO

Duration: 20 minutes

Several OEMs currently face the challenge of information silos due to poor integration of models across the product life cycle. Furthermore, there is limited reuse of models between programs and the variation of modeling maturity across various Engineering disciplines results in lack of traceability. In this short presentation, we will look at solutions and workflows that leverages a systems model as a common language of communication while facilitating various types of real time dashboards and visualization to help understand and optimize the entire Mechatronic system performance.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Keshav Sundaresh, Global Director – Smart Systems & Mechatronics, Altair

Duration: 20 minutes

G.S. Vidyaprakash presents how Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. drives the design process with simulation. In his presentation First Time Right Machine Design with CAE Simulation, he discusses reliable simulation techniques to predict & prevent failure modes.

Controller strategy expert Lorenzo Moretti presents how to improve Cobot collaboration. In the context of virtual commissioning, he discusses how more meaningful controller design is possible with realistic plant models.

Dr. Fatma Kocer VP, Engineering Data Science at Altair showcases the impact of AI in development environments. In particular on how CAE tools will evolve and Design Exploration is taken to the next level.

Anthony Mc Loughlin VP Sales Data Analytics, EMEA presents how to empower engineering to make data & AI work.

Marco Fliesser Technical Director Data Analytics EMEA presents "The Value of Data Analytics in the Smart Factory ".

Brett Chouinard, President and COO of Altair discusses Development challenges in Industrial machinery and illustrates how Altair's scalable simulation solutions provide the environment for simulation-driven innovation and how machine learning expands the capabilities furter.

Benoit Pelourdeau presents how Stanley Robotics SAS drives the design process with simulation, to develop the world's first robotic car storage service. Learn from him how the interdisciplinary mechatronic product development team succeeds with accurate virtual prototypes.

Daniel Jauss, Application Engineer CAE, gives a Demo Sessions on Altair Simulation Solutions for faster evaluation of real-world machines, explaining how to improve system understanding with dynamic motion analysis to Identify real behavior of the machine assembly and Identify peak loads.

Christian Kehrer, Business Development Manager System Modelling, gives a Demo Sessions on Altair Simulation Solutions for faster evaluation of real-world machines, explaining how CNC control optimization is performed to realize toolpath error correction of a CNC milling machine, with system simulation and how more effective controller design with realistic plant models is realized.

Indradev Babu, Managing Director, UCAM PVT LTD, explains how he developed a CNC Jobshop to the largest manufacturer of CNC Rotary tables—presenting different development examples, he explains how Simulation Driven Design helps him to differentiate and what simulation Strategies he implements in the customer-centric development for the following generation Machine Tools at UCAM.

Industry expert Dennis Baum presents how Weber Maschinenbau applies simulation, how simulation can be used along product lifecycle and which benefits arise to customers and internal processes.

Industry Innovator Luca Gatti Luca invites you to a virtual coffee break, to see why it is necessary to model and deeply study the physics behind a cup of coffee. Learn why Gruppo Cimbali SpA is creating digital twins of their coffee machines to fully embrace the digital transformation.

Mayer & Cie. GmbH & Co. KG sets simulation as a central element of the digital development strategy and leverages virtual product development for more efficient machine generations. Marcel Wohlleb presents simulation applications and illustrates how customers of the world market leader in circular knitting benefit.

Mr. Vijay Zala and Mr. Pragnesh Zala present development methodologies for new economic machine generations and showcase why Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd. sets simulation at the core of the development strategy.

A recording of the electric motor development panel discussion as part of the ATCx Electric Powertrain virtual event in March 2021. The panel features insight from Cleef Thackwell, Lead Motor Design Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover; Dr. Lars Fredriksson, VP Global Automotive at Altair; James Eves, Team Manager at Altair; Jonathan Stevens, Senior Development Engineer at Equipmake; Andy Jones, Innovation Program Manager at HiETA Technologies; Sergi Riba, Design Engineer at Safran Ventilation Systems; and Vincent Leconte, Senior Director of Global Business Development, Electromechanical Solutions at Altair.

Andrew Dyer, Senior Tech Specialist at Altair in the US, Gabriele Piombo, EngD Partner with Altair at the University of Warwick, and finally Prof. James Marco, Professor of Systems Modelling and Simulation at the University of Warwick, present - Rapid Battery Layout Optimization using 0D / 1D in a Systems Environment. Together they will discuss the use of a 1D Systems approach to simulate a battery module. This includes the cell, cooling plate & busbar and is subjected to a typical extreme duty cycle. A typical event is simulated where the maximum allowable temperature is exceeded which triggers an increase in the cooling flow rate. This system is then optimised.

Andrew Lawton, Principal Research Engineer at Smart Manufacturing Technology. Andrew has worked at SMT for almost 10 years with a focus on the dynamic analysis of drivetrains, including the effect of excitation forces from the electric machine as well as the gears. Andrew’s presentation will cover NVH analysis of an EV drivetrain, specifically with regard to response to electric machine forces generated by Altair Flux.  He will illustrate this by looking at how the presence of unbalanced magnetic pull can affect the NVH response by importing the forces from Flux into MASTA.

Dr. Lars Fredriksson, VP - Simulation Driven Innovation at Altair, presents the multi-physics design of e-motors with a particular focus on optimising performance including efforts to maximize torque and power under defined driving conditions while keeping rotor stresses, motor vibrations and motor temperature within certain limits. We’ll also see some specific examples of this process as applied to e-motor development at both Porsche and AMG.

James Eves, Team Manager at Altair, Jonathan Stevens, Senior Development Engineer at Equipmake and Andy Jones, Innovation Program Manager at HiETA Technologies, discuss AMPERE, a joint project to produce an extremely lightweight, efficient but low-cost electric motor with an extremely high continuous power density. The consortium will present some of the engineering challenges that designing such a high performance motor has posed, and how these challenges have been overcome through advanced manufacturing technology and simulation driven design.

Sergi Riba, Design Engineer at Safran Ventilation Systems, with a brief introduction by Vincent Leconte, Senior Director of Global Business Development - EM Solution at Altair. Together they discuss the development of electric machines for the aerospace sector.

Dr. Royston Jones, CTO and Dr. Anthony Hahnel, Technical Director, give their keynote presentation during the ATCx Driving Innovation in Electric Powertrain 2021.