Manufacturers of heavy machinery operate in a mature market where increasing global competition keeps forcing the costs of production down. As a result, the leading companies in this industry have been among the most extensive and innovative users of virtual product development.
They`re applying the technology to the design and development of everything from lawn and garden tools to heavy construction and earth-moving equipment.
The process of design, build, and test with physical prototypes is the engineering approach that has been used for years. It is proven and reliable for designing machinery to meet specialized demands in farming, forestry, construction, and a host of other environments. But the process takes too long and requires too many prototypes to "get it right".
The new approach for all of engineering is to create virtual prototypes that can be tested with the assistance of a computer, duplicating the conditions that the entire (prototype) machine will experience. In this virtual environment, the design can be changed, new prototypes can be built, and virtual tests can be run in minutes instead of months. This new approach has been proven in demanding aerospace applications, and shown reliable in time-critical automotive applications. Why not use these same techniques on all of your engineering designs?
Applications
Heavy equipment: draglines, backhoes, bulldozers, cranes, towed implements, load predictions and sizing of components and motors, durability analysis, operator visibility studies, predicting power required for digging effort, studying effect of boulder impacts
Off-highway equipment: farming equipment, forestry equipment, construction, tracked- and wheeled-vehicle dynamics, stability studies, operating efficiency studies
Benefits
- Greater innovation
- Process automation and shorter development cycles
- Design for durability
- Reduced physical prototypes
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