Organic inspiration for automotive design engineers
Daimler AG has officially certified solidThinking Inspire®, a product that enables design engineers to create and investigate structurally efficient concepts quickly and easily. With this certification, the tool becomes available to all design engineers at the customer as part of the Altair HyperWorks® computer-aided engineering software suite. Traditional structural simulations allow engineers to check if a design will support the required loads; solidThinking Inspire enhances this process by directly generating an optimal new material layout within a given design space using loads as an input.
The automotive industry is continually striving for lighter and more structurally efficient designs to meet global emission regulations while improving product performance. With solidThinking Inspire, these goals can now be achieved during the initial conceptual design phase of a new component or system, since the tool supports a simulation driven design process. Furthermore, solidThinking Inspire helps design engineers follow the functional and resource-efficient design rules found within nature - an approach often called biomimicry - for additional inspiration. This typically results in more organic looking shapes and structures than traditional design methods.
With the Daimler certification, all design engineers within the car and truck development departments of the company may now use solidThinking Inspire within their projects, giving them an opportunity to create efficient structures with minimum weight. This works for components, assemblies, and entire systems. Design engineers may also use solidThinking Inspire to apply a required stiffness on a component where needed, helping to avoid undesired vibrations and contributing to overall vehicle comfort and quality.
"Historically, the sophisticated optimization technology contained within solidThinking Inspire was only available to simulation specialists. This technology can now be used where it offers the greatest return - within the concept phase of a new development project," said Pietro Cervellera, Managing Director Altair Engineering GmbH. "We are thrilled about the certification and look forward to supporting the organization both during and after deployment."
