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Altair > Case Studies > Andron Handling's Use of Altair SimSolid in Design Development of Bespoke Mechanical Equipment

Andron Handling's Use of Altair SimSolid in Design Development of Bespoke Mechanical Equipment

Technology Category

Robots - Cartesian Robots
Sensors - Haptic Sensors

Applicable Industries

Aerospace
Automotive

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking
Virtual Reality

Services

System Integration

The Challenge

Andron Handling Ltd., a UK-based company specializing in the design of bespoke mechanical equipment, was developing a custom handler for a major automotive supplier. The handler was designed to transfer wheel sets from a conveyor system to delivery pallets within tight space constraints. A pneumatic clamping system was used to grip up to four wheels at a time, allowing rotation of the wheels while clamped. The challenge was to assess the strength of the welded fabrication and vertical clamping arms for both lifting and clamping loads. In previous analyses of this type, Andron would have removed the wheels from the model and applied reaction forces at the bottom of each of the clamp arms. However, for this project, they needed a different approach that would not have been possible with previous FEA toolsets.

About The Customer

Andron Handling Ltd. is a U.K. based company that specializes in the design of bespoke mechanical equipment. Most of their systems are one-off and are designed for a particular application. With mechanical, electrical, ergonomic, and control system expertise, Andron is able to take on any handling requirement. They are currently developing a bespoke handler for a major automotive supplier. The handler is designed to transfer wheel sets from a conveyor system to delivery pallets with tight space constraints. A pneumatic clamping system is used to grip up to four wheels at a time, allowing rotation of the wheels while clamped.

The Solution

Andron used Altair SimSolid to model the entire assembly. Clamping forces were simulated by applying a force to each of the four piston rods and a matching reaction to each cylinder body. Sliding connections were applied to the piston and linear bearings to allow this force to be transferred to rigid bodies simulating the wheels. No special preparation of the model was required; the analysis included small components such as circlips and fasteners. The only modifications from SimSolid's default settings were to use increased quality for automatic contact detection, adjust a few of the resulting contact conditions to simulate the sliding of the pneumatic cylinder and linear bearings, and set the wheels models as rigid bodies in order to assign a fixed mass. The entire process, including all setup/preparation and fixing some errors in the CAD model, took only 1.5 hours.

Operational Impact

Using SimSolid, Andron was able to quickly model the entire assembly in a very realistic manner with sliding connections, a clamping force on the pistons and matching reactions on the cylinder bodies. The speed of the simulation allowed Andron to run multiple design iterations within the budgeted time. The predicted displacements due to gravity were accurately calculated, and the stress values were found to be well within limits, giving a predicted safety factor in the clamping arms of 8.7 against yield. This approach provided a more accurate and efficient solution than previous methods, demonstrating the effectiveness of SimSolid in the design and development of bespoke mechanical equipment.

Quantitative Benefit

Reaction forces at the lifting eye found to be within 1.5% of theoretical weight
Simulation of full assembly in less than 50 seconds, allowing multiple design iterations
Stress values well within limits, giving a predicted safety factor in clamping arms of 8.7 against yield