Product Lifecycle Management is a big thing in the industry today, whether it be in automotive, aerospace and defense, engineering service providers or heavy engineering...
Solutions for the foundry industry
Product Lifecycle Management is a big thing in the industry today, whether it be in automotive, aerospace and defense, engineering service providers or heavy engineering. Basically PLM solutions are designed to streamline business process and achieve product design innovation and design for manufacturing. In the process they help drastically reduce the manufacture time and also bring down costs.
The latest entrant who has been benefiting by PLM solutions is the foundry industry. “This sector has not been exposed to software much and was not IT savvy but that is changing now,” says Kartikeyan V, director-technical, EDS-Technologies. “With all the majors in automobiles, etc setting shop in India , it is time the industry gets going. The foundry sector is no more an Indian market but we are seeing global bids. It is here that solutions like SolidCast and OptiCast that we offer can help. To get the best castings, minimize rejections, maximize yield, the simulation program helps.”
The simulation looks at all foundry processes like flow, heat transfer, etc and offers a 500 materials base, he says. Methoding process to test methods instead of going to the shopfloor, to identify defects instead of the trial and error traditional method which saw much material loss, to reduce scraps, etc the advantages are many.
“In some cases the lead time saved was as much as 39 weeks while $700,000 was saved annually. By running the program you can have as many as 13 simulations in less than two weeks,” Kartikeyan notes. The quality too is vastly improved.
The SolidCast allows the user to import 3D models from CAD or build his own models without CAD. It simulates all the molding processes used in metal casting. The Flow Cast from Infinite Solutions Inc works with the SolidCast models to show how the molten mateal moves through the gating systems and fills the mold. While OptiCast is a software that makes use of Altair Engg’s system, it automates the simulation process. It allows the foundry engineer to start with a design and let the computer modify it for optimum results.
