As computing power and software technology continue to accelerate, mechanism and structural simulations modeling the performance of products yet to be produced are finding their way out of the traditional industries (Aerospace) and into other commercial industries (appliances, automotive, heavy equipment). In the early days of structural analysis and mechanism simulation, it wasn’t practical to devote the tens of thousands of dollars and months necessary to produce simulation models for a product that could be prototyped before the simulation project even began. Now, not only is it practical, it can put you light years ahead of the competitor by reducing the overall cycle time and improving product quality by the numerous virtual prototypes that can be produced.

John Crossman of Visteon was responsible for the RV Gear at Visteon Automotive Chassis Systems in Dearborn, MI. The RV Gear is a hydraulically assisted steering mechanism for a number of US made automobiles. His task was to develop a tool for testing the behavior of the system in response to changing all of the different variables within the mechanism without producing a number of expensive prototypes. He approached Pitzer Consulting and Parametric Technology Corporation to help him develop an accurate simulation model of the RV Gear.

Like any product development process, a major budgetary setback is the production of a number of expensive prototypes. By choosing to replace a significant number of the physical prototyping steps with virtual prototypes, an organization can potentially save a tremendous amount of money. Additionally, a much more thoroughly iterated design emerges since the incremental cost of another variation of the virtual prototype is oftentimes almost nil. Another major bonus in creating the virtual prototype of the RV Gear was that we could test out the effect of various dimensional tolerances on the system. By having a solid understanding of the effects of different combinations of dimensional tolerances, we could reduce the manufacturing costs.

CALL TODAY - to see how Pitzer Consulting can help you design better products through simulation - 310-973-2577