Overview
The event was organized by LaunchTech, the official authorized partner of Dassault Systémes in the Middle East. The goal of the seminar was to explore how lightweight engineering can be used to achieve sustainable innovation. The seminar featured a number of speakers from Dassault Systémes France HQ, and from the leading UAE innovators like Strata Manufacturing and Technology Innovation Institute (TII).
The speakers discussed a variety of topics related to lightweight engineering, including:
The use of CATIA to create lightweight designs
The use of Abaqus FEA to analyze structures and materials
The digital manufacturing environment for sustainable innovation
Sustainable innovation in the UAE, for industry, start-ups and academia
The seminar also included interactive sessions, virtual reality booth by HTC, where participants could learn more about the latest lightweight engineering technologies.
The Story: a Drone Bracket
A recent event hosted by Dassault Systèmes and their local partner featured a story-telling approach in which four experts role-played being part of one team in an eVTOL company. The team consisted of Hadrien (Project Manager), Dominique (Design Engineer), Erwan (Manufacturing Engineer), and Melad (Structural Analyst).
The project began with Hadrien, the project manager, identifying that the team needed to reduce the weight of one of their drone products. The addition of more batteries had caused the weight to exceed the limit, so the team needed to find other ways to reduce weight. Hadrien identified a bracket as a potential area for weight reduction.
Hadrien used the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform to create a project dashboard that included key performance indicators (KPIs), tasks, timelines, and other relevant information. This dashboard allowed the team to track their progress and make sure that they were on track to meet their goals.
Next, Dominique, the design engineer, performed topology optimization on the bracket. Topology optimization is a process that uses computer algorithms to find the lightest possible design for a given part. Dominique defined the allowed regions to optimize and the frozen regions to retain (such as bolt areas). He then added load cases and restraints to the model, and identified the manufacturing process that would be used to produce the part. He also used several advanced techniques to polish and improve the final organic-looking shape.
The optimized bracket was then sent to Erwan, the manufacturing engineer. Erwan set up the bracket for 3D printing through powder bed. He prepared all the machine inputs and process parameters needed for the actual manufacturing of the part. This was done using DELMIA apps on the same 3DEXPERIENCE® platform.
The optimized bracket was then sent to Melad, the structural analyst. Melad performed a sequential thermo-mechanical simulation using Abaqus technology on the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform. This simulation predicted the behavior of the part during the printing process, including residual stresses, distortions, and potential cracks or delamination.
The results of the simulation were then used by Dominique to compensate for the distortions predicted by Melad, using the powerful Morphing tool in the CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE® toolbox. This allowed Dominique to ensure that the final bracket met the team's fitting tolerance, strength, and stiffness requirements.
