Voice of customer – Why heavy equipment industry should move to system simulation

Bertrand Grison is the founder of the Hynovium company and supports with his team heavy equipment industry players to move towards more sustainable development of their machine by using system simulation. We take the time to discuss industry trends and solutions. Discover his vision in 4 questions:

Could you tell us about you and Hynovium?

Hynovium is a mechatronics engineering company providing 2 types of services to the Heavy Machinery industry :

• Product development: We provide innovative designs to existing products or define disruptive technological solutions for new products.

• Design office’s performance improvement: We bring our expertise in product development processes to our customers and support their transition to optimize engineering methods.

What is driving the heavy industry market today?

Machine builders are facing challenges on both their product designs (greener) and their product manufacturing (faster and cheaper). Public image and regulation are pushing the manufacturers to reduce fuel consumption and noise pollution. Competition is pushing them to reduce costs in order to preserve their margins.

Hynovium aims at supporting their transition towards more sustainable development of their machines and transform those challenges into opportunities.

What do these challenges imply for your customers?

Our customers have understood the need to shorten development cycles to be more reactive to market evolutions. They are also trying to develop innovative products to differentiate from the competition. And, most of all, they want to secure their development process to reduce defects and ensure the highest quality on the first try.

One of the main opportunities we identified is the use of iterative design methods where a simulation software exists. Digitalization brings the ability to automate and accelerate design assessments. With system simulation, when different physical effects are coupled like hydraulic and thermal interactions, it is highly beneficial to use a dedicated tool.

What are your expectations about system simulation?

We chose Simcenter Amesim for its ability to provide insights on a system’s performance. Its expertise is recognized throughout the mechanical industries. This solution allows to rapidly model a complex system thanks to different libraries of components. The physical phenomena considered are described and explained which allows the re-use of a model by a colleague or a third party. The solver and the post-processing capabilities make it a powerful tool supporting engineering choices.

For example, on hydraulic circuits, Simcenter Amesim will be able to predict response times or pressure levels with accuracy. On thermal applications, it will assess the thermal fluxes (conduction, convection, radiation) between parts. Typical modeling duration is 3 to 5 days for a first-level model. Simulation is rarely longer than 20 minutes for a large model (100-200 state variables) involving complex physics on a mission profile (10 minutes simulated). Re-use of former model and 2-3 extra days will make it a full precision simulation addressing rapid phenomena.

Viable prediction of a system’s performance will help to reduce the number of prototypes, and thus, the price of new development. Where 2 to 3 prototypes (100k€ each) are necessary, we can imagine reducing to 1 prototype with some rework on specific parts. The return on investment is direct.

The transition towards system simulation solutions can help any manufacturer. Hynovium is ready to support its customers to ensure they get the most benefits from digitalization.

You are eager to get more information?

• Visit our website about simulation for Heavy Equipment performance engineering.
• Join our webinar series about system simulation for heavy equipment.
• Join our webinar series on machinery simulation.