Altair announced today that world-renowned English luxury mobile phone manufacturer Vertu has invested in and deployed Altair's complete range of technology and services through the company's new HyperWorks Unlimited™ (HWUL) appliance. HWUL is a fully managed, state-of-the-art private cloud solution for computer-aided engineering (CAE), with fully configured high-performance computing (HPC) hardware and software, offering unlimited use of all Altair HyperWorks® engineering applications.
Vertu is applying CAE methods in its development process to replace some time-consuming physical testing of valuable phone prototypes in order to achieve more efficient development cycles. To maximize the benefits of using CAE, Vertu supported by Altair ProductDesign has developed and deployed an automated drop test simulation process, which is fully integrated into the HWUL solution. From a computer-aided design (CAD) model, a very high fidelity drop impact finite element analysis (FEA) model of the phone is set up to test different drop orientations, velocities, and many other scenarios which can be selected by the user. This is then simulated using Altair's RADIOSS® solver in parallel on the HWUL appliance.
The multiple simulation results are then extracted and analyzed in a batch process. A spreadsheet-based summary report is generated to review component and system-level performance with provision for detailed post-processing in the HyperWorks desktop environment. This automated process has enabled Vertu to quickly and efficiently identify potential impact damage and make design decisions.
"Simulation is key to our product development process, and Altair's HWUL appliance and RADIOSS solver have offered a far more efficient means of deployment," said Stewart Dewey, FEA Specialist, Vertu. "The level of accuracy on results has been improved along with significant time savings. So far we have seen up to 50 percent improvement in efficiency of processing times, and we expect this to improve further with continued use of the software. HWUL offers one of the most competitively priced packages on the market and is a solution which we can develop and scale in the future. With the unlimited usage ability, we are able to explore the full HyperWorks offering."
"We are delighted to see a luxury brand such as Vertu invest in Altair's complete range of services," said Hakan Ekman, Managing Director for Northern Europe, Altair. "HyperWorks Unlimited offers many benefits allowing companies to have unlimited access to HyperWorks Units for extensive virtual exploration. In addition, Altair fully supports the appliance from deployment to ongoing maintenance and support throughout the contract period, giving companies significantly more time to focus on making their development processes more efficient than ever before. We are pleased to hear that Vertu plans to utilize the full range of Altair tools available, and we look forward to seeing the company integrate simulation-driven design into the further evolution of its brand."
