TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Seat Belt and Inflatable Restraint Divisions are adapting to a virtual design-through-manufacturing process.
One of the first tests of this "master model" approach for TRW was when its Seat Belt group designed a D-ring, the ring that comes out of either the B-pillar or the door near the ceiling of the car. The value of this approach is that it lets the designer move from concept through prototype and on to manufacture quickly with more certainty about the shape, appearance and quality of the products. The design process featured a combined CAD/CAM and file managment system from EDS Unigraphics, which gave designers parametric capability to keep its designs consistent and explicit modeling functionality for increased flexiblity.
Until recently, TRW Seat Belt Systems had been using a 3D wireframe CAD/CAM system to design its products.
The ultimate aim of TRW is to link global operations into a master model network for digital design through manufacture of its products.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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