What are the most common mistakes companies make when attempting to simulate their manufacturing process?
First, what do we mean by manufacturing? Manufacturing is a very generic term and could mean many things to different people, but at its heart, manufacturing is simply the transformation of raw material into finished goods that is useful and has value to someone. These finished goods could be a very complex high tech product such as an airplane or something very simple such as a bar stock that will be used to make other metal parts. Each of these final products has their own manufacturing challenges, and companies need to keep the cost as low as possible and the time as short as possible to be profitable.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is one simulation technology successful manufacturers are increasingly using to gain a competitive advantage. Accurate analysis can reduce costs by replacing physical prototypes with computer models. Many real life situations can be simulated in the virtual world even before a single tool is made. However, FEA may be a powerful technology, but like any other technology, one needs to know how to use it to get accurate results.
As seasoned analysts, we all know that the quality of results we get from FEA depends on the quality of assumptions made: the better these assumptions, the closer to reality we get with our simulation. Ultimately, we rather not make any assumptions that produce results far from reality. Until that day arrives, analysts need to make decisions such as how many elements are needed to accurately predict stresses/displacements, how boundary conditions are applied, what material models to use, which element types to use, and the list goes on. Many times, these assumptions are made because the FEA code has limitations, and we need to simplify the model to accommodate software limitations. For example, an FEA solver might be limited in simulating contact interaction between different components in the sense that we might be forced to assume a certain contact profile and run a linear analysis. Other examples could be material going beyond elastic limits or thermal effects inducing deformations which affect contact profile or a combination of all of these.
So, how do we go beyond all of these simplifying assumptions? Simple, we use Marc; the Advanced Nonlinear Simulation Solution MSC Software. Over the past 40+ years, Marc has been used to solve the most challenging problems and delivering real results to the companies that use it. With Marc, you can remove most assumptions and simulate reality.
Please contact me and let me know
- How you are using Marc today to remove assumptions
- If you are performing a simulation today that isn’t matching the real word
- About your complex manufacturing problem you are currently solving
Simulating every day,
Pedro
Want to learn more about nonlinear FEA solutions for manufacturing? Watch:
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