LETTER FROM THE CEO
by
DOMINIC GALLELLO
President & CEO
MSC Software
Simulating
the Complete
Engineering Process
A
few years ago I attended a global
leadership conference where the
attendees on the opening night
sat right in the middle of the Los
Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
They powerfully demonstrated the sounds
that an orchestra would make if they were not
working well together. It was not good. Finally
the conductor took control of all the sections
and to no surprise, the music was fantastic.
If you think about the number of simulations
that take place in a product development
process, it is really not much different. If one
of the members of the simulation orchestra
delivers great results, but they are alone and
disconnected from the rest of the development
process, it is pretty clear that the results will not
be optimal.
Over the past few years, we have been
assembling the major sections of the simulation
orchestra to simulate the complete engineering
process:
• Materials – The design of new materials
which reduce weight and provide same or
better structural integrity with reduced part
count, materials that have better acoustics
properties, etc. is becoming more and more
critical. This can be for materials of chopped
fiber and continuous fiber composites as
well as metal which is still the predominant
material for cars, trains and planes. Design,
testing and management of new materials
should be a natural part of the design
process, not relegated to just a “special
few”. We enable engineers to use the
design variables of new, advanced materials
with certainty as a natural part of their
design process.
• Fabrication – As the materials are chosen,
they need to be formed into parts. Forming,
forging and other fabrication processes
are done by a huge number of companies.
Forming simulation we have done before,
but annealing, rolling, curing, 3D printing
and general simulation of fabrication is
something new and offers our customers
the ability to use simulation to explore
the impact of fabrication on the materials
behaviors and the robustness of their
designs in the face of realizable material
variability. Support the simulation of the
as-manufactured spatial property variation
to enable parts/systems designers to design
to robust manufactured parts with minimal
margins. Enable the fabrication engineering
departments to decide on the best ways
to work the material to obtain the design
targeted properties.
• Parts – The ability to quickly model and
shape parts for simulation that runs the first
time has been difficult to achieve over the
years. And now, as light-weighting is driving
engineers to refine their parts designs and
3D printing and other fabrication methods
are opening new design options, it is even
more critical to enable engineers to design
the parts. It is no longer enough to validate
that the part meets its operational criteria.
Make simulation tools easier to use and tie
them more closely to the geometrical design
parameters. Enable the easy exploration
of fabrication methods in the simulation of
parts behaviors.
• Assembly –Idealized parts from the
traditional design process don’t always
behave the way you want after being
fabricated and then joined to an assembly.
Welding, riveting, annealing and spatial
variations from strain hardening and
forming of steel and aluminum change
the characteristics of the subsystems and
systems and this cannot be ignored. The
joining process is another very important
input into the design process to understand
overall system behavior and how to exploit
it in the design of parts and in the design of
the assembly process itself.
• Systems – Getting the system model just
right gets more and more challenging.
Lightweighting, acoustical optimization,
energy management, stability augmentation
of the dynamic behavior and more and more
specialized load cases coupled with a need
to minimize the use of margins of safety
to create certainty in the design creates a
seemingly endless back and forth between
the system model and the myriad of part
models. The reduction of just one loads
cycle has incredibly positive time and cost
impact on the overall development process.
Enable the systems model and its criteria to
be visible throughout the design process.
Simplify the exchange of systems and parts
behaviors and properties through the supply
chain.
All five pieces of the process are now in place.
With the building blocks laid down, it offers us
incredible opportunities to assist our customers
to accelerate not only each piece of the
process but also to exploit even greater design
improvements by simulating the materials to
systems processes. We look forward to working
with you to realize the full potential.
Volume V - Spring 2015
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