Continental Engineering Companies UK (CES) are a number one automotive design consultancy and engineering providers supplier for electrical motors, inverters, PDUs and DCDCs. CES push boundaries, maximising energy density, minimising packaging quantity and element lots. Prospects all the time have very aggressive goal weights requiring extremely environment friendly cooling methods. That is the place progressive packaging options develop into important in offering engineering options and assembly clients’ necessities.
In CES’ newest venture, the necessities to combine into the automobile energy practice had been such that the one technique to obtain a design answer was to mix the motor and inverter, using a novel cooling structure. This design meant that delicate inner castings with skinny partitions can be required and thus CES began trying on the newest casting methods and the providers that Sylatech present.
Sylatech was eager to display that its clear sheet reappraisal of sand-casting methodology might supply new alternatives for element design and was keen to fulfill the difficult goal of an ultra-lightweight motor-inverter housing with skinny forged wall thicknesses which can be nonetheless machinable.
A 3D idea was designed which then went by means of the usual CES pc simulations and analyses primarily based on buyer necessities. As enhancements and efficiencies had been made, the housing design went by means of a number of iterations. As a part of this design loop, Sylatech carried out their casting simulations and had been in a position to suggestions to CES in a constructive design loop as a accomplished design was finalised.
Sylatech proposed a 100% (Voxeljet) sand printed answer to make sure design flexibility was as free as doable all through the venture life cycle. Having supported with casting Design for Manufacture, the corporate set about calculating and modelling a runner system with a relentless fill fee of 0.5m/sec. Normal options equivalent to a pouring basin and stopper, constrained sprue and runners, vortex traps (to seize the vanguard of oxide-rich aluminium) had been shortly established, adopted by extra nuanced additions equivalent to 60PPI filters on all gates flowing into the mould cavity. Velocity, temperature, gate movement strain and dendrite arm spacing simulations had been then modelled with Sylatech’s FLOW3D CAST software program.
Sylatech’s casting new product introduction (NPI) engineer favours this digital strategy to sample design. FLOW 3D allows exact understanding of how the metallic flows within the runner system and cavity. The selection of casting solely with sand printed moulds yields important design freedom however the draw back is that it leaves no room for error. Any casting defects would end in costly re-prints. It’s subsequently crucial that the NPI course of locations such a powerful emphasis on fill calculation and simulation verification. Thus, a complete of twenty-two iterations of runner system had been accomplished earlier than a remaining design freeze was agreed.
CES’ skill to make use of CFD, FEA and Thermal computational evaluation software program along side Sylatech’s casting evaluation software program was integral to the design course of to fulfill necessities, ‘proper first time’ and shortened deadlines. It’s crucial to have the ability to design, analyze/simulate, and experiment nearly in order that the completed design can meet the targets in actual world testing.
Complimentary to the software program analyses is the usage of non-destructive testing (NDT) on the pre-machined forged half. Radiography is right for expedited integrity checks, offering dwell, nonetheless and video imaging which could be seen in actual time earlier than greenlighting the machining course of.
The ultimate housing design achieved round 64% weight saving from preliminary design to remaining product and is roughly 47% beneath the coolant strain drop requirement, but meets stress, vibration and fatigue targets. Early communication, cross celebration adoption of analytical strategies for design, manufacture and testing and on-going efficient collaboration had been essential to attaining these goals.
