Simulation Driven Product Development

In Simulation-driven product development, simulations are the basis for the entire product development process and it follows a lean-approach. By using simulation, at an early phase of the product development process companies have the potential of reducing time to market, increasing product quality, and reducing overall costs.

The complete product development process is computerized. This process uses CAD, CAE (FEA, CFD, Manufacturing Simulations), 2D Drawing, Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and documentation.

CAD Design: 

CAD design is the first stage of product development to draw out the concept design in 3D modeling software. This modeling will be helpful in the future stages of product development. The software used for this purpose is Solid Edge, SolidWorks, Creo, or any other CAD modeling software.

CAE Analysis: 

Computer-aided engineering consists of Finite Element analysis to study the strength, vibration, and dynamic aspects of the concept design, and topology optimization to achieve an innovative and best design for the product. It also consists of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and Thermal management to address the heating and cooling within the product. The process between CAD and CAE is an iterative one and will require a lot of iterations to achieve the best design. CAE analysis is performed using software such as ANSYS, ABAQUS, COMSOL, etc.

System Modelling: 

System modeling is the connection of different design modules and it includes control system design to verify and validate the performance of the product design achieved in the real scenario. This model addresses all the different aspects of the system including all the mechanical, physical, software, and electrical components, and their specification. System modeling is done using MATLAB, using their toolbox like Simulink Simscape, Control design toolbox, and other mathematical toolboxes based on the requirement. There is an open-source version of MATLAB known as Scilab, which can also be used to build the system modeling.

CAM Simulation:

Once satisfied with the simulation performance, additional simulations are required to predict the manufacturing standards, costs, and requirements related to the specification of the product. This simulation is performed using manufacturing process simulation software (CAM) also known as Computer-aided manufacturing. This simulation includes milling, drilling, turning, casting, and other processes. This enables us to accurately determine the cost of manufacturing and also the lead time.

Product Development Cycle: 

The above processes are repeated until all the stages have achieved the desired target specification. Once the specification is achieved, then we proceed to make a prototype to test the real application. After prototype testing, we can proceed directly to the production with very minimal changes getting the best quality product at a lower cost.

Major Advantages of using this process:

1. Reducing time to market,

2. Increase product quality and

3. Reduce overall costs.

Some of the future applications that can benefit from this method are electric and autonomous vehicles [Cars, Buses, Bikes], robots, agriculture (urban and rural), and other industrial IoT applications.

If you have a product specification in hand and looking for someone to develop it into a virtual product. Your go-to partner is Virmodello Technologies (VMTL) with varied experience. Visit www.virmodello.com to get a quick quote today or send an email to viswanathan@virmodello.com or call us at +91 9789099151.