Daimler Benz to Implement Breakthrough Powertrain Process
28 August 1998
Daimler Benz to Implement Breakthrough Powertrain Process With CATIA
PARIS--Aug. 28, 1998--A step forward to single digital vehicle definition
and integrated Product Development Process
Daimler Benz, Dassault Systemes and IBM announce today that they are working together on a new cooperation project for powertrain design. The goal is an integrated engineering, manufacturing and tooling digital definition of the physical behavior of the three cylinder diesel engine for the Daimler Benz Smart car.
The objective of this project is to transform traditional 3D surface-based powertrain processes into highly concurrent engineering design-to-manufacturing methodologies based on 3D solids. Reducing the overall development cycle time, minimizing manufacturing costs while improving quality and bringing to the market an innovative and competitive engine are some of the driving forces behind this pilot project.
"Using CATIA, all departments at Daimler Benz involved in the powertrain process talk the same language from concept to production and industrialization. We have very quickly and very easily integrated CATIA into our work methodologies. We found ourselves making design changes 40% faster with CATIA Solutions while continually improving and updating materials and processes based on a single 3D model. We reduced cycle time by a factor of two," stated Juergen Scharpf, Daimler Benz leader of the joint powertrain project.
Said Herr Lamberti, Vice-President CAx and EDM Systems at Daimler Benz: "Before we were limited in our natural creativity process due to the number of CAD systems installed in this part of the process chain. CATIA's flexibility offers us new space for innovation."
Using CATIA hybrid modeling techniques, engineers very quickly design complex powertrain parts either in surface or solid-based mode while keeping associativity between design, casting and tooling. To accelerate part design and study various design alternatives, users work concurrently on different subassemblies within an associative multiple model structure. The CATIA part editor provides a structured, graphical record of design operations thus facilitating daily communication between teams.
Before any design is forwarded to analysis specialists, designers are able to perform early optimization to very quickly and easily check the validity of their proposal.
In this project, design engineers integrate product know-how and all related downstream applications specifications at a very early stage. This results in significant reduction of the number of iterations and errors caused by ineffective communication.
Associativity and propagation of changes from the design phase to the manufacturing definition of powertrain parts casting and forging is of paramount importance given the number of variations possible for an engine.
"With CATIA, we provide an innovative process integrating product, manufacturing processes and resources in a consistent way. We are motivated to share aggressive objectives with our customers in term of lead time reduction and to deploy our technology and services to support process change," explains Frank Lerchenmueller, Vice-President of IBM Worldwide Engineering Technology Solutions Unit.
"By capitalizing on this powertrain know-how and ensuring close customer involvement in product development and testing, we secure optimal support for the design and manufacturing processes. This search for excellence is shown by CATIA's continuous evolution and its unequalled adaptability," says Philippe Poelaert, Dassault Systemes Client Executive of Daimler Benz and Vice-president of Research & Development for ENOVIA Corp.
Daimler Benz is the oldest and most famous manufacturer in the automotive industry. In 1997, the company sold about 715,000 passenger cars and 417,000 commercial vehicles worldwide. The revenue was about 124 billion DM. CATIA has been widely used by Daimler Benz since 1983, not only for components, body-in-white and powertrain design for cars and industrial vehicles, but also for simulation and manufacturing. On June 12, 1997, the German constructor reconfirmed its strategic selection of CATIA Solutions by signing a new three-year license and support contract. Today Daimler Benz has 2,500 CATIA seats installed in a heterogeneous Unix multi-platform enterprise system.
Dassault Systemes is a worldwide recognized leader in CAx and PDM II markets. CATIA-CADAM Solutions with Deneb, the digital manufacturing company, address the CAD/CAM/CAE process-centric market. Through a unique strategic partnership, CATIA-CADAM Solutions are marketed, distributed and supported by IBM worldwide. This unique partnership is now extended to PDM II solutions. SolidWorks, a Dassault Systemes company, addresses the CAD design-centric market, with its flagship native Windows NT product and its dedicated distribution channel. In the network-computing environments, the Java-based CATweb product line provides a graphical window into native enterprise product data. For the PDM II market, ENOVIA Corp., a Dassault Systemes company, provides with its ENOVIAvpm and ENOVIApm product lines a new multi-CAD collaborative and innovative environment for virtual product and process modeling and management across the extended enterprise.
IBM is the leader in creating, developing and manufacturing the world's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. IBM translates these advanced technologies into value for its customers through its professional solutions and services businesses worldwide.
CATIA press releases and general information on CATIA are available on the CATIA home page at http://www.catia.com.
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