In this case, we will talk about one of the projects of the Laduga company.
Laduga is a Russian automotive engineering company that develops electronic and mechanical components and systems for vehicles. She works with domestic and foreign automobile companies - Daimler, General Motors, Audi, Opel, AVTOVAZ, KAMAZ, ROSTELMASH, UAZ and a number of others.
Of course, CATIA is not the only software package used by the company. Its engineers work with CAD packages (NX), CAE packages (PRADIS, LS-Dyna, Ansa, Ansys, Ansys CFX, Fluent, Ansa, Salome, Code-Aster, OpenFoam). However, CATIA plays a key role in design projects, actual design and optimization in accordance with vehicle standards and requirements.
For example, how to design the interior details of a passenger car, its outer surfaces - fenders, bumper, that is, the exterior of the car? You can't do without serious CAD. Engine parts or transmission elements are also tricky.
Difficult task
In the described project, the design engineers were faced with the task of developing an intake module for a passenger car engine. In connection with the launch by the automaker of a new line of passenger cars, it was decided to install a new engine on them. As often happens, a new engine model was developed by modernizing the old one: some components were changed and added.
In particular, since the new engine must have more power and larger displacement, a modification of the intake module was required.
Designer toolkit
CATIA V5 software allows you to develop three-dimensional models of products, associative drawings of parts and assembly units, supports working with large assemblies, associative links between a 3D model and its projections in drawings, includes tools for surface modeling and working with digital layout (DMU).
“The CATIA V5 software we use allows us to create parts of complex shapes, supports parameterization, it is quite easy to edit the geometry of the product, for example, to change the key geometric parameters. Our engineers have already had experience with this software product in the automotive industry. And this largely determined his choice, "says Valery Ovchinnikov, General Director of Laduga LLC.
Division of labor
The project of the intake manifold (intake module) for a passenger car engine is one of the largest and longest in the company. It was implemented from July 2013 to September 2015. The design and preparation of design documentation was carried out by specialists of the Laduga company, and its industrial partner is directly involved in the manufacture of the product and delivery to the conveyor. The designers and the Laduga calculation team worked on the project.
There are many requirements for product design. The module should be quickly and easily installed on the conveyor, you need convenient access to the spark plugs and the ability to easily measure the oil level. To assess the fulfillment of these requirements, a kinematic analysis of the model was used. The actual design of the product was carried out in the CATIA V5 package. It also prepared design documentation.
Many similar projects of the Laduga companyare executed in CATIA V5. They last from a month or longer, depending on the stage of the car project. Other projects, such as those related to electronics, can be carried out with other software packages based on customer requirements. The design process itself is carried out jointly by designers, technologists and calculators. Calculations in Laduga are performed in separate CAE packages, including those developed by the company itself.
Certain designers work with complex surface modeling tasks, while others only deal with assembly modeling, layout or drawing production — they have simpler workplaces. A product like CATIA requires a highly skilled engineer, especially when it comes to handling difficult surfaces. Therefore, the company has a separate group of designers who deal with such tasks.
From prototype to product
Of course, the intake module is primarily about aerodynamics. Its task is to fill the engine cylinders with air as much as possible. Within two months, the designers and engineers went through many solutions.
We considered options for a can of a module with additional through wells for controlling air flows, internal ribs, and various shapes of channels (runners). All this was calculated to verify the requirements for aerodynamics and acoustics. The main criteria for aerodynamics were the maximum filling of the cylinders and the uniform distribution of air over the cylinders. And the assessment of the noise level is especially important because the plastic housing of the module is soft compared to the traditional aluminum module.
Based on the design results, a prototype product is manufactured. The intake module works in the engine compartment under difficult conditions. Standard 3D printing in 2013, alas, produced too fragile parts that could not withstand high temperatures or heavy loads. Therefore, the main prototyping technology here was casting in silicone molds.
Serial product - made of glass-filled polyamide. It is a very tough material that meets the requirements for noise and vibration. It can operate in harsh conditions with high vibration levels and temperatures in excess of 120 degrees Celsius - the same operating conditions in the upper part of the engine under the hood.
In general, the prototyping process is organized as follows. The first prototype is usually functional: functional requirements, the same aerodynamics and noise are checked on it. At the same time, the parameters of the thickness of the body are not necessarily maintained, its material may be different, the main thing is that the part withstands these tests.
After functional tests, the next prototype is produced, which is already closer to the final version. It is necessarily made from the base material to confirm that the product meets all the target technological and functional requirements.
All these were bench tests of the engine. And now it's time to test our design on a car. And not just one! Testers are required to provide 20-30 prototype copies.
3D printing in this case is not always economically feasible, and molding in silicone molds again comes into play. The essence of the technology is as follows: using 3D printing, we obtain a master model, based on which we obtain a silicone mold. This form will withstand the production of about 30 copies (for simpler parts, more is possible).
And then cars with prototypes of the module will disperse to all corners of the future sales market. Plains, mountains with a rarefied atmosphere, hot dry deserts, high humidity, winter and summer - it is in these conditions that testers, together with electronics engineers, calibrate the engine for a new intake system.
After successful tests, the following stages go: production of serial tooling, final inspections of products manufactured on it, receipt by the supplier of approval for the manufacture and delivery of this part to the conveyor, and, as a result, the beginning of serial production of the part.
In a short time
And what about the timing?
“We had two months to confirm the adopted concept. If during this time we do not receive the fulfillment of the target requirements, then all the milestones of the automotive project will shift. The situation was critical, since it is usually impossible to implement such a project in two months, ”says Valery Ovchinnikov. "It was necessary to create a prototype and show that the specified specifications can be achieved."
Work began in June, and in September the company had to hand over the prototype for testing. Basically, the engineers were engaged in the optimization of the so-called "banks" of the intake module. For one and a half or two months they did not succeed, but then they managed to find an original solution that showed the best results.
3D modeling and documentation preparation
With the help of 3D modeling, the designers analyzed the direction of air flows, the uniformity of filling the cylinders and, if necessary, immediately changed the shape of the "can" of the intake module. It turned out that it was possible not only to meet the requirements of the technical task, but also to exceed them. The new intake module has improved engine performance, delivering higher power and torque than ever before. This even increased efficiency. In September-October, the tests began, which confirmed the conclusions of the virtual tests, and then the Laduga specialists started designing the hull in plastic.
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Design documentation is also submitted to contractors in CATIA format. Design changes are possible throughout the entire project, even after the start of serial production, and, according to the contract, the company provides engineering for several months after the start of sales. Sometimes, in the details, improvements are needed, changes in the equipment, and this is a change in the design documentation.
This task is greatly simplified by the associativity support in CATIA. When the 3D model is updated, the drawings are automatically updated with minimal manual revisions.
Failure to test and fix bugs
At the end of the numerical calculations, the results are always verified by tests. On the manufactured prototype of the intake module, tests were carried out for engine operation in different modes.
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Insufficient strength of the prototype material (this is not the main material at this stage of the project) and various research test modes led to the destruction of the structure.
An increase in the strength and rigidity of the intake module was required. For this, lengthy repeated calculations of strength, acoustics and vibration were carried out during optimization. The result is a complex multi-edge structure. Based on the results of strength and stiffness calculations, engineers obtained a picture of the stress distribution, on the basis of which they added stiffening ribs to the structure. The calculations were repeated over and over again in order not to accumulate unnecessary mass and to achieve the required results.
After that, the final prototypes were successfully tested. And then the product “went to work”. The proposed design of the intake module was put into production and is used on cars to this day.
New plans
The automaker is now creating a second-generation engine, which is to be fitted with a new intake module. The company "Laduga" designs, this new product is also using the software of CATIA .
Without this software, the work would simply be impossible. It supports the design of complex spline surfaces, and such functionality is simply not available in lower-level products, ”says Valery Ovchinnikov. - But apart from the capabilities of the program, the competence of the engineer himself is required. He must be able to use such complex functionality, work with such surfaces, "iron" them.
Difficulties of the transition
Now one of the main tasks of the company is the transition to CATIA version 6. It will be involved in new projects. Such a transition is the additional complications of file exchange, mastering the product, integrating it, and finally just learning.
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“With the introduction of CATIA V6, along with the fact that we use a lot of different software, the issue of data export and import arises. This requires the use of plugins, additional converters. Seamless integration fails. But, ultimately, this issue will also be resolved, ”Valery Ovchinnikov is sure.
“Even leading designers use CATIA functionality no more than 20% due to the fact that many features have been developed in recent years,” he says. - How to master this or that functionality, how useful it will be to us is a methodological question, and we are still learning this. It is required to develop a design methodology using the new functionality. "
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