New Contact Enables Engineers to Simulate Contact, Impact and Friction

30 November 1999

New Surface-to-Surface Contact Enables Engineers to Easily Simulate Contact, Impact and Friction

    PITTSBURGH--Nov. 30, 1999--Algor, Inc., a leading maker of software for mechanical engineers today announced that a new general surface-to-surface contact capability is now available for its Accupak Mechanical Event Simulation (MES) family of products.
    Engineers use Accupak MES products to simulate real-world behavior of mechanical designs involving motion or impact in order to obtain a stress analysis at each instant in time. General surface-to-surface contact enables engineers to very quickly and easily set up contact scenarios, including the effects of friction, in an MES.
    "The new general surface-to-surface contact capability enables engineers to more quickly and easily set up mechanical events involving contact and impact," said Michael L. Bussler, President of Pittsburgh-based Algor. "It enables mechanical engineers to develop products that are more reliable and less costly to produce with faster times-to-market."
    To use the general surface-to-surface contact capability, an engineer only needs to specify the parts of the model that might touch or impact one another -- no other input parameters are required. If friction is applicable, a friction coefficient can be entered. Although the parameters for surface-to-surface contact are set by default, advanced parameters such as stiffnesses and contact tolerances are available for engineers who wish to specify these parameters.
    There is no limit on the number of surface-to-surface contact pairs that can be defined in an MES. To reduce processing time, engineers may specify a particular contact surface on each part or a contact area of a surface.
    This new surface-based type of contact supplements Algor's existing contact capabilities for MES, including impact planes and general contact elements. Surface-to-surface contact is the quickest and easiest contact and impact method for most contact scenarios and is necessary if friction needs to be considered. Algor's unique impact planes remain the fastest way to simulate contact against a flat vertical or horizontal surface. General contact elements are best used when an engineer wishes to consider damping or simulate a mechanism's behavior, such as coupling.
    Surface-to-surface contact is available across the entire Accupak family of products for PC workstations running Windows NT, 95 or 98. However, it is most useful for engineers who use Accupak/VE or Accupak/MES to conduct Mechanical Event Simulations. In an Accupak/NLM nonlinear static stress analysis using nonlinear material models to predict material deflection, deformation and displacement, surface-to-surface contact simulates instantaneous contact between parts.
    Algor has been a leader in the engineering software industry since introducing FEA for PCs in 1984 and interfacing with CAD systems in 1985. The company recently celebrated 20 years of providing innovative, affordable and easy-to-use software products that have enabled 20,000 engineers in 60 countries to create safe, efficient, cost-effective designs. Algor also offers superior educational support and customer service that has been expanded to include the use of state-of-the-art Internet audio/video technology for live educational "Web Courses" and free public "Webcasts" that include step-by-step Algor software instruction.
    Algor's most recent invention, FEA-based Accupak/VE Mechanical Event Simulation software with linear and nonlinear material models, replaces physical prototype testing with virtual prototype testing because it realistically simulates motion and flexing in mechanical events, eliminates the need to input dynamic loads and computes and shows resulting stresses on the computer model at each instant in time. Algor's new kinematic finite element technology now makes it practical to perform Mechanical Event Simulations with Accupak/VE on CAD solid models or assemblies. Algor offers a range of other FEA capabilities including linear stress, vibration and natural frequencies, heat transfer, electrostatics, fluid flow, piping design and composite materials. Algor's software interchanges data with products from ANSYS, Inc. , Autodesk, Inc. , CADKEY Corporation, MSC.Software Corporation , Parametric Technology Corporation , Structural Dynamics Research Corporation , Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. , SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systemes S.A. company and others.
    FOR PHOTOGRAPHS: Go to www.algor.com/photographs.