Casting
ESI has developed a set of applications for the foundry industry to improve casting yield and quality: QuikCAST -- a fast and efficient solution for process evaluation -- and ProCAST -- an advanced tool which is the result of more than 20 years of collaboration with major industrial partners and academic institutions around the world. QuikCAST focuses on the basics of any casting process: filling, solidification and porosity prediction. ProCAST, based on Finite Element technology, is able to predict deformations and residual stresses and can also address more specific processes like semi-solid modeling, core blowing, centrifugal casting, lost foam and continuous casting.
Composites
ESI has developed an entire suite of industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate and fine tune the manufacturing processes of composites parts. These applications focus on components made of continuous fibers and thermoset or thermoplastic matrix. Manufacturing of composites parts usually goes through different operations. ESI offers an integrated solution that allows the analysis and optimization of each individual manufacturing operations but that also links these different operations by transferring material history (change in fiber orientations, curing degree, temperature distribution, etc ...) from one operation to the next.
Sheet Metal Forming
With our die face design and sheet metal forming simulation solution called PAM-STAMP, engineers can design, optimize and verify metal forming processes on computer. PAM-STAMP covers cold, warm and hot sheet metal and tube forming processes, patched and tailored blanks, and is used in all industries, including automotive, aerospace, electronics, and appliances.
At the quoting stage, users can determine blank outlines and optimum nesting for material cost estimation, and quickly develop draw dies. In the feasibility phase, die designers can model tool surfaces based on B-Spline geometry, and engineer a successful forming process without cracks and wrinkles, to specifications, including hemming, trim development and trim line and blank shape optimization. In the validation phase, engineers can precisely estimate springback, compensate the dies in the drawing operation or across multi-operations, and detect and visualize cosmetic defects just as they would on the shop floor. There is no difference in any of the software settings between the feasibility and validation phase, which ensures the best possible result quality.
Validation of the cooling efficiency of 3D tools in a press hardening process is possible with a heat transfer or a true fluid-flow (CFD) analysis. Also, since manufacturing affects material properties, which in turn affect product performance, the results of a forming process can be used to engineer a welding assembly process, with the goal to keep the assembly within tolerances and improve product performance. Finally, engineers can display and review the findings in a virtual reality environment. Virtual Prototyping ensures that component manufacturing and assembly processes deliver the designed product specifications and performance – on time, and within budget. ESI provides complete solutions for virtual prototyping of lightweight designs that deliver as good as real prototypes so designers can make the right decisions.
Welding & Assembly
Using the Virtual Welding & Assembly Suite, you can predict the heat effects of welding processes, allowing cost-effective distortion engineering, and weld quality and residual stress control.
ESI solutions allow to
- Minimize the cost of prototyping
- Minimize the cost of distortion repair work
- Develop and optimize a weld plan within the shortest time range
- Keep welding distortion within allowable tolerances
- Guarantee the best weld quality
Control stresses in welded designs
Virtual Performance Solution
Virtual Performance Solution (VPS) is a global solution for Virtual Product Engineering, which has its origins in PAM-CRASH, and takes into account multiple domains.
In various industries, manufacturers are striving to develop greener and safer products, using lighter materials and innovative designs, while ensuring leading-edge functional standards, including safety, comfort, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), acoustics, stiffness and durability.
VPS addresses all these key attributes and allows engineers to handle interactions across multiple - and sometimes conflicting - domains efficiently.
VPS enables multi-domain optimization by reducing the number of physical prototypes, shortening design cycles and cutting development costs.
The solution features a single core-model for all domains of performance and is able to run all load cases on a single cluster to limit design iterations and lead time induced by synchronization between domains.
Virtual Performance Solution faces challenges such as:
How to cope with safety regulations while reducing weight?
How to anticipate the impact of new materials and manufacturing processes on product performance?
How to match conflicting requirements and bring revolutionary changes to increasingly complex products, while cutting the development costs and time drastically?
Virtual Seat Solution
Passenger comfort is becoming more and more important for OEMs and the seat manufacturers face new challenges: reinforced occupant safety, new requirements in manufacturing, work on the occupant posture, occupied seat transmissibility and thermal analysis are taken into account during the development of a new seat.
Virtual Seat Solution (including the software previously known as PAM-COMFORT) enables virtual manufacturing and virtual comfort testing (static and dynamic) of the soft parts of the seat.
Vibro-Acoustics
Government legislation, competitive pressure and tight development schedules mean you can’t afford to wait until your product is built to find unexpected noise and vibration problems. With ESI's vibro-acoustic software you no longer have to. Account for noise and vibration right at the design stage - no more costly delays or panic driven test-based solutions. You can diagnose potential noise and vibration problems up front in your development process. Manage risk by identifying possible problem areas that may need more detailed modeling or test based development, while you still have time to make an impact on the product!
The full spectrum of solutions: Whether you are creating SEA models of initial concept designs or fully detailed Finite Element and Boundary Element models of final prototypes, ESI has all the simulation methods you need. Design for noise and vibration performance across the full frequency spectrum, leveraging decades of company research.
Design evaluation: With our unique way of coupling statistical and deterministic modeling methods in a hybrid way, you have the flexibility to make models as detailed or as simple as you need. Create system level noise and vibration models in a matter of hours and get solutions in seconds, even on a laptop. Our VA software helps you rank sources and identify dominant transmission paths quickly. Get answers to key design questions in real-time, not tomorrow or next week.
CFD & Multiphysics
Computational fluid dynamics or CFD is a technology that simulates interaction of liquids and gases with surfaces, by performing millions of numerical calculations. CFD analysis is mainly carried out earlier in the design process based on which the prototype is made. With high-speed supercomputers, better solutions can be achieved. Multiphysics is basically advanced CFD involving multiple or coupled physics. For example, combining chemical kinetics and fluid mechanics or combining finite elements with molecular dynamics. Multiphysics typically involves solving coupled systems of partial differential equations.
In this area, ESI offers solutions for simple physics to complex coupled physics. ACE+ Suite is mainly CFD and Multiphysic software package serving the Semiconductor, Microfluidics, Biotech, Energy & some specific Automotive applications very well. And SYSTUS, on the other hand is again a Multiphysics tool specific to Civil applications.
Electromagnetics
Computational Electromagnetic (CEM) Solution for Full Virtual Testing
Nowadays, manufacturers are required to comply with certain international Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) regulations. Hence complying with EMC standards in the early design stage is highly desirable. Digital EMC makes it faster and cost- effective.
ESI offers unique solutions for specific industries like Transportation, Aeronautics, Defense and Electronics.
ESI’s PAM-CEM Simulation Suite operates in the middle & high frequency range. Being mainly time-domain oriented, it focuses on EMC/EMI issues appearing in a wide spectrum with onboard electronics and complex cable networks. PAM-CEM is also able to handle frequency- domain as well, for Active Safety & RADAR devices.
Efield Solutions is primarily frequency-domain oriented with some time-domain features, making the overall solution complete.
In the Transportation industry, Efield Solutions solves all major scenarios like antenna radiation, placement and/or optimization, rear or side window antenna designs and much more.
For other industries such as Aeronautics & Defense, the consolidated solution now offers the same coupling and/or hybridizing strategy, extending it much beyond its previous limits with larger models, higher operating frequencies, and more sophisticated scenarios, taking EMC/EMI modeling one step further.
Multi-Domain Simulation
Every product engineering team deals with questions in the virtual prototyping phase, many of these covering multiple engineering domains. ESI's Visual-Environment allows these teams to work together in a single user environment, around a single core compute model. This environment has the capacity to integrate all virtual prototyping problems across CAE domains. In addition, its user-friendly interface and automation features empower engineering teams to be ever more productive!
Decision Support
Decision making is an important part in any product engineering. A good product is an outcome of very good, calculated decisions made throughout the product development phase right from conception to installations. While Visual-Environment brings multi-disciplinary engineering solutions together, it is constantly fed with live and crucial information which helps product engineering team take right step. VisualDSS is a decision support system which connects with the Visual-Environment and proves to be the backbone for any product engineering team to make correct and realistic decisions throughout the virtual prototyping phase. Simulation information stored in the decision support system mainly helps with:
- Connecting to various CAD, ERP, PDM & PLM systems
- Implementation of any engineering change across all domains
- Automation of tasks
- Building best practices knowledge base
- Project management
Services
With 40 years of experience in CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering), ESI offers specialists in various disciplines to help our customers fill resource gaps, improve internal knowledge and get better results in a shorter time. A close collaboration between ESI engineers, universities and industrial partners is the key to advanced engineering methods.
CFD Consulting Services
Customized CFD solutions with expert engineers, choice of software and advanced infrastructure
ESI's CFD Consulting team has more than 30 years of experience in CFD consulting with over 100 engineers spread across the world. This team has been working across all industries with special focus and expertise in the Automotive, Aeronautics and Energy sectors. Many OEMs work with the ESI CFD team to develop customized solutions suiting their business needs. ESI clients reduce costs by deploying ESI engineering services & customized tools to solve flow and thermal problems without having to invest on in-house resources, software & hardware. Every customer’s engineering need is treated as a special solution, using the appropriate software and infrastructure. ESI consultants also support our clients in the deployment of ESI’s CFD technologies, such as OpenFOAM, ACE+ Suite, FASTRAN, PAM-FLOW by performing benchmarks, methodologies, and mentoring.
OpenFOAM related services
In order to fully support OpenFOAM users, ESI offers the following:
-Training
-Development
-Support
Methodology Development
ESI is well known for its wide range of simulation software technology and more than 30 years of engineering expertise in all major fields of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE). Our highly experienced service teams supports you in investigating the potential of your innovations. Based on the results, we integrate and develop methods to virtually test and assess your innovations.
Process Automation
With more than 30 years of engineering expertise in all major fields of CAE, our well trained and experienced service teams will assess current processes with your key staff and management in order to develop an “As-Is” and “To-Be” process description.
Based on this document, a detailed project and implementation plan is established and submitted for approval.
This plan is the basis for implementation using VisualDSS process automation or similar available technology.