Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries
- Automotive
- Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions
- Facility Management
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Additive Manufacturing
- Rapid Prototyping
About The Customer
EDAG is Germany's largest independent engineering partner to the worldwide automotive industry. Founded by Horst Eckard in 1969, the company has grown to employ over 7900 employees worldwide and had a total turnover in 2013 of € 632 Million. EDAG offers its services to all of the automotive industry – from OEMs to suppliers and works with some of the most exciting automotive brands in the world. The company has widespread expertise in integrated development and in the production of vehicles, production facilities, derivatives, and modules. EDAG is continuously seeking new technology and innovative processes to streamline vehicle development, particularly in the area of lightweight design.
The Challenge
Germany's largest independent engineering partner to the global automotive industry, EDAG, was seeking innovative processes to streamline vehicle development, particularly in the area of lightweight design for both passenger and commercial vehicles. The automotive industry is faced with the challenge of increasing fuel efficiency and meeting legal requirements on emissions, while ensuring safety and competitive pricing. Traditional methods of manufacturing often require design proposals to be adapted to manufacturing constraints, which can limit the potential for lightweight design. In a recent project, EDAG engineers were tasked with developing and manufacturing affordable lightweight constructions of a commercial vehicle that could meet individual customer specifications without major changes in production facilities. This required a process that not only offered the best design approach but also incorporated the requirements of the selected manufacturing method.
The Solution
EDAG leveraged its engineering knowledge to combine state-of-the-art computer-aided engineering tools with new production technologies such as additive manufacturing. The company used the best practice optimization tool OptiStruct to develop a lightweight biomimicry structure of a truck cabin and chassis, which was then manufactured using additive manufacturing methods. This combination of topology optimization and additive manufacturing allowed EDAG to fully benefit from the design freedom of additive manufacturing. The engineers conducted multi-physical optimizations and combined strength and crash demands of the vehicle to find the optimal solution for the final design. The result was an optimized frame structure that integrated a large number of functions and provided a significant weight advantage compared to a non-optimized structure, manufactured with conventional construction methods. A specially designed safety cell inside the cab was also designed and analyzed to protect occupants from typical injury risks in crash scenarios.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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