Sujan CooperStandard, known for its anti-vibration systems, realized it needed ‘something’ more to make its customers sit up and notice the difference between its services and those of its competitors. Mr. Brijesh Sujan, Head – R&D, Sujan CooperStandard, decided to rope in experts at ‘disrupting’ traditional processes and conventional ideas to achieve the edge. While there were a few simulation technology (SimTech) companies to choose from, he preferred Altair’s experience and expertise.
Mr. Brijesh Sujan shares: “There is a big pressure for optimizing the design to achieve light-weighting. With Altair, we are able to get 80 per cent of our products right the first time. We use their torsion vibration damper to reduce noise and vibration inside the cabin as much as 12 db. Our target is to meet certain criteria in terms of model, stress and weight which make us competitive in terms of price and norms and to have right stresses for the life of the product. Altair has helped us deliver good products to our customers quickly.”
SimTech – the way ahead
In the 17 years since Altair set up office in India, many pro-active organizations like Sujan CooperStandard opted for SimTech to make matters easier to manufacture at reduced costs.
Mr. Pavan kumar, MD – Altair India, talks about the times before and after SimTech in India: “In the 70s or 80s, people just built the vehicles based on design. Today, the minute somebody starts developing products on his own, simulation becomes second nature because people know that it will reduce costs and the time to enter the market, makes a better product and helps achieve attributes which they couldn’t have been achieved until some 20-30 prototypes were made. Earlier, people looked for durability and strength and then moved on to life cycle predictions. Once performance parameters came in, there was even more simulation required. If more load was needed to be carried with the same capacity engine, the immediate step was to reduce the weight of the truck body. Our tools cater to that. In the current times, safety and comfort of the driver are becoming important, which need more simulation. So the market has matured in tandem with their requirements.”
With the automotive sector looking at Bharat Stage VI norms, SimTech too will have to adapt. Mr. Pavan Kumar comments: “BS-VI will require simulation for both inside the engine, treatment of the gas and also if the weight can be reduced to carry more, or if more weight can be pulled with less power. Next come connected vehicles, driver-less ones, or with assisted driving. All these require a new set of tools. Then comes IOT, where again we can contribute in, say, vehicle management system or preventive diagnostic checks …so our technology follows the path that the manufacturers are taking.”
According to him, Indian customers will also soon realize what the service providers / Off Shore Engg. & Design Center (ODEC) already know about India’s cutting-edge technology and that is specifically about scalability, “Nobody in the world can scale the way India can.”
Hitting bull’s eye
To an Indian novice SimTech end-user, it is easier on the conscience to fail virtually multiple times, if at all, before hitting on the ideal design… expertise and experience of the service providers notwithstanding. The customers invariably seek to view the practical benefits of bringing concept to reality in reducing costs and weight.
Mr. Pavan Kumar explains: “Producing a maximum of couple of prototypes for homologation and testing before proceeding makes it a faster process when the market demands go up and the customers are unwilling to wait.”
Mr. Rohit Sadalge, Director – Marketing, shares: “The attitude of the traditional family-owned supplier companies with old money is changing slowly, especially the Indian Tier-1 companies. In the earlier days, they were compelled by the OEMs to conform, but in the last decade or so, we had the foreign OEMs getting their suppliers along with them who were aggressive, so there was not much choice left for these traditional supplier companies but to open up.”
Mr. Pavan Kumar adds: “Also it helped that the younger generation was educated abroad. Another thing was that though it was a hard battle to get the Indian OEMs to accept SimTech, but once they did, it had a cascading effect. It is a mixture of all these things coming together.”
Despite knowing that the technology yields benefits, the Indian OEMs still seek convincing when new technology is suggested or a new area of operation comes up.
The last decade has seen SimTech being awakened to by the market, traditional customers notwithstanding, at an impressive pace. With options of alternate fuels and electric mobility coming in, SimTech will be more of a reality.
Mr. Pavan Kumar feels: “Electrification of vehicles will need less of virtual validation because the number of moving parts will be fewer. Hence, the game changes and we are already gearing up for these changes. Do you know that we are one of the few software companies which retain a services arm in India so that new techniques can be learnt and our software products can be improved and to meet the new requirements. We offer cutting edge engagement where the chances of failure are high, and we come in where the OEMs do not want to invest in.”
‘Disruptive’ strength
Altair’s strength lies in modelling and visualization. In a market that is welcoming SimTech more openly than it did a decade back, Altair is more than ready to inundate the market with innumerable innovations, disrupting customer cycles, rather gleefully.
Mr. Pavan Kumar talks about Altair’s software tools. He says: “We find new niches with our many innovations but they disrupt the design cycle for a customer. The user and the CAE expert may be unhappy, but the boss will be happy because if he can get a product right the first time, then why not? Our Optistruct software is used in the processing stage, which today is considered a gold standard for weight reduction in the industry, for any aspect such as topology, topography or optimization. The last stage is the visualization for which we have Hyperview, Hypergraphy and the like.”
Tools of continued disruption
Altair India continues to work with electric mobility, communication devices, preventive diagnostics and IOT as an enabler of all these as it had a year and a half ago. The next step however is analytics. Says Mr. Pavan Kumar: “It is already operational in the high tech arena of aero engines which no longer will follow a standard operating cycle time. I see a day when even for vehicles, they will not specify that the service interval should be 10,000 km it will be dynamic, it will be used on user conditions, usage pattern, and driver profile. These are all again virtual validation, using finite element analysis but new application areas.”
Since the Government norms have been emphasizing the safety of vehicles, drivers and the cargo, those companies that have not opted for SimTech are also now tightening their belts. Mr. Pavan Kumar adds: “Initially it was safety; now it is also the performance parameters because of the emission norms. Regulations do impact some more simulations.”
Altair is in a happy mood helping its customers with its innovative intelligence by converting a concept into reality.
Mr. Pavan Kumar, MD, Altair India
In the 70s or 80s, people just built the vehicles based on design. Today, the minute somebody starts developing products on his own, simulation becomes second nature because people know that it will reduce costs and the time to enter the market.