CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
26 May 2004
Implementation Investments
Hella Autotechnik s.r.o. Invests in Virtual Product Development With SimDesigner From MSC.Software
MSC.Software Corp. announced that automotive supplier Hella Autotechnik s.r.o. (Hella) has invested in SimDesigner for CATIA V5 from MSC.Software. At its construction and development site in Mohelnice, Czech Republic, Hella designs and manufacturers lighting systems, including head and rear lights, for major automotive OEMs throughout Europe. With the implementation of SimDesigner, Hella expects to improve its design process by utilizing the SimDesigner Nonlinear technology based upon MSC.Marc for stress simulation of lighting systems, which contain plastic and composite materials.
"The SimDesigner product line is picking up momentum in Europe, especially within the automotive supplier market," says Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "Whether you are developing lighting systems or electronic sensors or any other automotive system, SimDesigner has the best combination of CATIA-embedded simulation tools for engineers to optimize design and reduce time and cost from the product development process."
"For 10 years we have been producing and designing lighting systems here in Mohelnice, but we have only started to implement simulation into our design process in August of 2003," said Pavel Brostik, Design Engineer, Hella Autotechnik s.r.o. "With the implementation of SimDesigner Nonlinear, we expect to significantly improve our design and construction process. The integration of SimDesigner within CATIA V5 was the important factor in our decision to purchase MSC.Software products. We also chose SimDesigner because the MSC.Software team in the Czech Republic can easily and quickly provide service, support and training. And last but not least, we were looking for a tool that could easily be learned and used by our design engineers-not only by CAE-specialists. I strongly believe that we have found a tool which meets all of these needs in SimDesigner."
The SimDesigner product line allows components and mechanisms to be tested before they are built, saving manufacturers time and money during the design and testing process. The SimDesigner for CATIA V5 product family currently includes Generative products, which embed simulation directly into the CATIA V5 CAD environment, vertical applications which enable the capture, storage, and reuse of product evaluation and process knowledge associated with building, testing, and validating products directly inside the CATIA V5 environment and Gateway products, which provide smooth, direct access to corporate simulation resources.
Currently, MSC offers the following Generative products: SimDesigner Linear (SDL), SimDesigner Thermal (SDT), SimDesigner Nonlinear (SDN), SimDesigner Advanced Structures Professional (ASP), SimDesigner Composites (SCP), SimDesigner Fatigue (SFA), SimDesigner Flex (SDF) and SimDesigner Motion (SMO); Vertical Applications: SimDesigner Suspension (SDS); and Gateways for MSC.Nastran, MSC.Marc, LS-DYNA, ANSYS, and ABAQUS, as well as in-house proprietary systems using the STEP AP209 standard.
For more information on SimDesigner for CATIA V5 and other MSC.Software products, please visit http://simdesigner.mscsoftware.com/
Lighting, electronics, complete vehicle modules, air conditioning systems, vehicle wiring systems and signal processing for the automotive industry as well as parts supplies to the aftermarket are the core competence areas of the automotive supplier Hella KG. Hella Autotechnik, s.r.o. in Mohelnice, a subsidiary of Hella KG Lippstadt, Germany, has been found nine years ago, starting to produce lighting products for the Skoda Felicia automobiles. Hella Autotechnik was classified by its customers a part of supplier group 'A', selected for the Skoda-VW quality award, and successfully certified by the KBA Dresden. Today Hella Autotechnik is run in accordance with ISO/TS 16949 procedures. The turnover of the Hella group world wide in the business year 2002/03 (until 31st May) was 3.027 billion Euro. A total of 22,811 people are employed in 61 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint venture companies in 18 different countries. More than 1,800 engineers and technicians work in research and development. For more information about Hella Autotechnik s.r.o., visit: http://www.hella.cz/autotech/eng/eng.htm
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