PARTNER SHOWCASE

Increased Design
Robustness by including

Forming & Welding

Simulations
Simufact

By Arjaan Buijk

Simufact-Americas LLC

n many cases, there is a missing link in

todays product design processes. The effect
of the manufacturing process is often not
taken into account, resulting in inaccurate
predictions of product characteristics like
durability, maximum load capacity, noise,
and crash resistance.
For example, a stamping process introduces
varying thicknesses and residual stresses in
the parts. When stamped parts are welded
together, this introduces further distortions
and residual stresses in the final product.
These deformations, thickness changes and
residual stresses have a big impact on the
strength and durability of the final product.
A solution to this problem is offered by
combining the manufacturing simulation
capabilities of Simufact with the CAE analysis
capabilities of MSC.Software.
Simufact is an OEM partner of MSC.Software,
and provides manufacturing simulation
software and services, to customers worldwide.
Simufact offers two specialized software
packages:

Simufact.forming
Simufact.forming is a simulation tool
developed especially for industrial forming
processes. It incorporates aspects of the
previous simulation solutions,
MSC.SuperForm and MSC.SuperForge from
MSC.Software. Both of those technologies
were integrated into a single product capable
of simulating industrial forming processes,
including closed-die forging, extrusion,
24 | MSC.Software

drawing, upsetting, bending, free forging, as

well as cold, hot or warm, mechanical press,
hammer or screw press operations, orbital
forging and rolling processes.

Simufact.welding
Simufact.welding is a simulation tool
developed especially for industrial welding
processes. It is based on the powerful nonlinear FE technology of MSC.Software, and
can be used to easily model robot driven
welding processes, with multiple robots and
multiple weld paths per robot. An unlimited
number of parts can be welded, and a flexible
definition is available to model the fixture
that holds these parts during the welding
operation, using
clamps, bearings
and springs.
By integrating
Simufact.forming &
Simufact.welding in
the overall product
design process, it
is now possible
to have process
manufacturing
simulation
integrated with
product design.
The manufacturing
simulation
software allows
this sophisticated
technology to
be used not only

by CAE experts but also by product and

manufacturing process designers.
The process is illustrated in Figure 1.
A case study of this integrated product design
process was presented at the 12th Simufact
Round Table Conference, held in BambergGermany, during October 2010 (http://www.
roundtable.simufact.eu/welcome.en.html).
The underlying technology that enables the
connection between Simufacts manufacturing
simulation software and the CAE solutions
of MSC.Software is the fact that the binary
output files of Simufact.forming and
Simufact.welding can be used as inputs for the
follow up simulations. For example, a forming
simulation in Simufact.forming will create a

Figure 1: Integrated product design process

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businesses as well as government and education

institutions to name a few.
The optimum approach to effectively engage
and service our rapidly growing customer base
locally is through our extended eco-system
of exclusively selected and qualified business
partners.
Today, MSC.Software has an extensive
network of business partners with close to 100
engineers, consultants and sales professionals
dedicated to service our customers in Asia
Pacific. These are a wonderful diverse mix
of new and old channel partners across Asia
Pacific, matching the diversity of the countries,
culture as well as specific requirements.
Figure 2: Case Study for Durability Life Assessment Methodology

As the year progresses, we will feature real

world cases and success stories from our
channel partners that will surely be of great
interest to our valued customers... stay tuned.

And The
Winner Is

Figure 3: Results for integrated durability life assessment

so-called t16 file, which can be read by

MSC SimXpert, Mentat or Patran to extract
both the geometry of the formed part as
well as the residual stresses and strains.
The integrated product design process for
a durability life assessment of a torque
converter is shown in Figure 2. This figure
is extracted from Reference 1, where the full
presentation of this study can be found.
The durability of a torque converter is
highly dependent on the residual stresses
introduced during stamping of the parts,
and during riveting of the parts to assemble
the final product.
During the Forming process, stresses and
thickness changes are introduced. These
residual stresses must be taken into account
during simulation of the Pressure cycling
that occurs while operating the torque
converter. The resulting stresses can then be
entered into a calculation of the Durability

assessment. The results of this process are

shown in Figure 3.
In summary, the capability now exists to
seamlessly integrate manufacturing process
simulation, performed with Simufact.
forming and Simufact.welding, into the
overall product design process.
For more details on Simufact.forming, visit
www.simufact-americas.com.

References
1. Design Robustness and Process Capability
using 6 Sigma and Simufact.forming
Dr. Kunding Wang
Tagungsband 12. Roundtable Simulation in
der Massivumformung,
Bamber 2010
Page 209-220
Simufact engineering gmbh, Hamburg 2010
ISBN 978-9813814-0-5

Papers were folded

neatly, others
were crumpled
up, some were
written in black
ink, and others in
unorthodox purple.
Each submission
had a story; each
submission had
a dream, some
were hopeful, and
others were simply
rolling the dice,
but there they
lay. A bowl full of
papers, an ocean
of names, numbers, hope, and emails.
One name emerged from the sea of
submissions, Venkata Naga Poornim!
As an industry leader and innovator,
MSC.Software wanted to offer more
to our customers at industry related
tradeshows. We all have walked
away from tradeshows with pens,
notepads, etc. We wanted to offer
more... what did we give away? Hope!
This year, MSC.Software held a raffle
for an iPad. Entries were submitted at
select tradeshows in which
MSC.Software was present. Several
names were submitted, but the name
that emerged was Venkata Naga
Poornim!
Congratulations to Venkata and
thank you to all who submitted an
entry.
This New Year will present new
opportunities. Look for more giveaways
at future MSC Events.
To view our events calendar, please
visit http://events.mscsoftware.com.

Volume 1 - Winter 2011

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