Expediting Brake Rotor Design Cycle through IoT: A Case Study of TRW Automotive

• Drones - Multirotor Drones
• Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)

• Automotive

• Product Research & Development

• Time Sensitive Networking
• Vehicle Performance Monitoring

TRW Automotive, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers, faced a significant challenge in the design and validation process of brake rotors. Vehicle manufacturers require both virtual and empirical validation for design proposals, and the maturity of these proposals often determines the awarding of new business contracts. To remain competitive, suppliers like TRW Automotive must become more efficient in their design and validation processes. This need for efficiency has driven the automotive supplier base to further leverage and expedite upfront Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE). However, the traditional CAE process, which involves a sequential approach to pre-processing, solving, and post-processing, was proving to be too long and inefficient. This process had to be repeated for each design concept and across various analysis types. If the final analysis did not meet performance targets, the process had to be started over, wasting valuable time.

TRW Automotive is a leading automotive supplier based in the U.S.A. The company is among the world's largest automotive suppliers and is recognized as one of the top financial performers in the industry. TRW Automotive supplies more than 40 major vehicle manufacturers and holds leading positions in all of its primary product categories. One of these categories is braking systems, where the company has developed a reputation for innovation and quality. The company's commitment to leveraging technology to improve efficiency and competitiveness is evident in its approach to the design and validation of brake rotors.

To address these challenges, TRW Automotive developed a novel approach for the evaluation of brake rotor designs that significantly improved analysis throughput and expedited the design cycle. They built a custom template within the ANSYS Workbench environment that captured various analysis types specific to brake rotor design needs. This brake rotor template automatically read in CAD model, applied loads and boundary conditions, and ran the entire analysis suite. The template approach allowed for simultaneous design evaluation of thermal, stress, and dynamic performance. It also enabled concurrent development of multiple design proposals and a full assessment of design performance. This innovative solution increased automation, brought analysis to the upfront of the design cycle, and allowed for a more thorough evaluation of design proposals.

• The implementation of the ANSYS Workbench template-based approach resulted in significant operational improvements for TRW Automotive. The increased automation and the ability to bring analysis to the upfront of the design cycle allowed for a more efficient and streamlined process. This not only saved valuable time but also improved the quality of the design proposals by allowing for a more thorough evaluation. The concurrent development of multiple design proposals also increased the company's ability to meet OEMs’ business and engineering targets, thereby improving its competitiveness in the market. Overall, the solution provided by ANSYS Workbench significantly enhanced TRW Automotive's brake rotor design and validation process.

• Over 90 percent reduction in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) analysis time
• Increased design and analysis throughput
• Increased automation in the design and validation process