Industry Summary Articles

Keynote speakers and presentation topics have been officially announced for the sixth annual Global Product Data Interoperability Summit. The September 8-11 event will feature industry-leading aerospace, automotive, software and IT experts who will address the importance of preserving data quality through the value stream. The Summit is of interest to anyone in the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM space—commercial or academic—who would like to participate in discussions about best practices in data management and exchange. Attendance has grown consistently with each annual Summit. “Early registration for this year’s Summit is the highest we’ve seen,” says conference organizer Ken Tashiro of Elysium. “We see this as a good sign that this year will be the biggest GPDIS ever.” There is still time to register. Additional registration information for the event, which takes place at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix, AZ, can be found here. Register before August 15 for a reduced registration rate. Registration is open

Delcam will demonstrate the huge time savings that can be made with its Vortex high-efficiency area-clearance strategy at Seco’s ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ manufacturing best-practice event to be held at the company’s premises in Alcester, Warwickshire, on 24th and 25th September. For full details on the event, please go to www.secotools.com/en-GB/GB-United-Kingdom/Events/Inspiration-through-Innovation/. The Vortex strategy offers substantial time savings by allowing users to make deeper cuts using the full flute length as the cutting surface.  A series of trials run by Delcam, on different machine tools within its Advanced Manufacturing Facility, has shown that time savings of up to 70% are possible with the new strategy. Unlike other high-speed roughing techniques that aim to maintain a constant theoretical metal-removal rate, the Vortex strategy produces toolpaths with a controlled engagement angle for the complete operation.  This maintains the optimum cutting conditions for the entire toolpath that would normally be possible only for the straight-line moves.  As a

Cadence Design Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Cadence, today announced the winners of the Cadence India Design Contest 2014. A flagship initiative of the Cadence University Program, the 10th annual edition provided engineering students an opportunity to showcase their talents in electronic design. The team from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad took the prize in the Master’s category for their project titled “Inductor-Less Reconfigurable Charge Pump Based Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting System For Self-Powered Devices” and the Bachelor’s category prize was awarded to the team from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Behrampur for their work on “Windows-Based Optimized Digital FIR Low-Pass Filter For iPod MP3 Player.” Two teams from NIT Hamirpur and BMS College of Engineering received Special Mentions in the Master’s and Bachelor’s categories respectively. As in year’s past, participating students were allowed to submit two different projects for the competition. The projects were judged by an

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SmartThings, the leading open platform for the smart home and the consumer Internet of Things. SmartThings supports an open and growing ecosystem of developers, who are producing new types of connected devices and unique apps in the cloud that change how everyday objects work. With Samsung’s resources and support, SmartThings will be able to expand its platform and become available for even more partners and devices. The company will continue to operate independently under founder and CEO Alex Hawkinson, and will become part of the Samsung Open Innovation Center (OIC), which is responsible for bringing software and services innovation to Samsung Electronics. SmartThings will move its headquarters from Washington, DC to Palo Alto, California. Founded in 2012, SmartThings gives people power to monitor, control, and automate their homes from wherever they are through a single mobile app.

   

The Volvo Journey Anders Carlsson, Senior Advisor - Virtual Manufacturing & PLM, Volvo Car Corporation Since its sale by Ford Motor Company to Geely Automobile in 2010 Volvo Cars has been a stand-alone company. So how does a global brand with only 0.5% of world market share stay competitive? This presentation will take a look at how Volvo intends to fulfill its vision of selling 800,000 cars per year by 2020 - an increase of nearly 100% over current sales. Volvo’s future is about getting as much product to market as quickly as possible and to achieve this goal Volvo’s plans call for lead time to be reduced by 50%. Find out how Volvo’s investment in a new systems engineering architecture is critical to achieving this goal.

John Mannisto, Engineering Director, Simulation-Based Design, Whirlpool Corporation John Mannisto is Engineering Director for Simulation-Based Design at Whirlpool Corporation. Prior to joining Whirlpool, over five years ago, John held positions at Lockheed and John Deere. Has also been a CAE consultant to the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries. His current focus is on CAE productivity in structures, fluids, dynamics, and manufacturing. John holds BSME and MSME degrees from Rutgers University in New Jersey.  

Rolf Hüsemann, Manager Engineering Systems & PLM, GETRAG FORD Transmissions Rolf Hüsemann and his team help define and maintain the IT processes and tools for GETRAG’s global product development (PD) solution. He advocates a PLM implementation strategy that respects the local requirements as well as the quickly changing global environment. He has 26 years of experience in supporting PD with IT solutions at Ford of Europe, Visteon, and GETRAG.  

Daniel E. Nicholson, P.E., Executive Director, Global Powertrain Embedded Controls, GM Dan Nicholson is the Executive Director for Global Powertrain Embedded Controls at GM. He has held this role since April, 2011. Dan is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the global engineering team responsible for all powertrain controllers and software as well as calibrating all powertrains, providing customer-pleasing drive quality, and ensuring compliance with tailpipe emissions standards and on-board diagnostics. Prior to this appointment, Dan was the vice president of Global Quality from 2010-2011. He held this role after repatriating from Germany where he served as the head of Powertrain Product Engineering Europe from 2005-2010. The scope of this role included the development and engineering of all engines, transmissions, and alternative propulsion systems in the region. Dan began his career with General Motors as a co-op student at Buick Motor Division in 1982. He has an extensive background in Product Engineering

Lou Young, Jr., Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Linear Mold & Engineering As Linear Mold & Engineering’s Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Lou Young is on the front-line educating both new and existing customers of the benefits of conformal cooling. Overall, he provides strategic direction for the Linear tooling and manufacturing sales force. Lou spent the last 18 years in the automotive and plastics industries. He began his career working in various skilled trade positions including CNC operator, plastic injection mold maker, tool designer, and automotive part designer. After studying at the University of Southern California for Industrial & Systems Engineering, he joined Linear in 2003.