Corus Automotive Engineering Win KBO Prize for Innovation
8 September 2000
Corus Automotive Engineering Win KBO Prize for Innovation; Corus Automotive Engineering's Pioneering Tool For Manufacturing Feasibility Wins Global `Knowledge Prize' for Innovation
BOSTON--Sept. 7, 2000--Corus, the international metals supplier formed from the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens in October 1999, are the winners of this year's international Knowledge-Based Organization (KBO) Prize. The prize(1), competed for by many of the world's leading automotive and aerospace manufacturers, is sponsored by Knowledge Technologies International (KTI) and is awarded annually to the company judged to have developed the most innovative application using KTI's advanced knowledge-based engineering system, The KBO Environment(tm) with `ICAD(R) built-in'.Corus Automotive Engineering (CorusAE) have pioneered the use of KTI's state of the art design automation software in assessing the manufacturing feasibility of hydroformed automotive components. Hydroforming, a metal forming process, is an exciting, emerging new technology that is still under-exploited in the automotive industry, despite its potential to reduce component mass and cost, and improve performance. CorusAE realised that one of the main inhibitors to widespread deployment of hydroforming was the lack of rapid tools for the assessment of component manufacturability. Currently, only assessment by experts in hydroforming manufacturing or Finite Element Analysis of the manufacturing process can yield answers of the accuracy required for confident decision-making. The burden placed on a few experts worldwide and the complexity of the analysis process mean that both of these options have long lead times.
With the need to commit major resources and capital expenditure to a particular component design, manufacturers understandably `play safe' with more traditional techniques, such as stamping. By using The KBO Environment technology to automate the analysis process, a preliminary assessment of manufacturing feasibility to a good degree of confidence can be achieved very quickly. Sectional analysis is the fundamental basis of initial manufacturing feasibility analysis, and using KBE one hundred sections may be cut and analyzed in under an hour. The same process carried out manually on only 5-10 sections may take in excess of 8 hours. Automation of the process enables geometry transition to be measured - a feature not possible with manual CAD techniques - and allows design evolution to be accelerated by a factor of 8-10. In addition to this, the rigorous nature of automated analysis and the traceability afforded through explicitly-defined engineering rules provide crucial data on which to base a decision.
The KBO prize was awarded to CorusAE for their creative approach in defining and solving a market need, the strategic nature of the application to their business, and the demonstration of clear return on investment and cost savings to be gained both by CorusAE and their customers. In announcing the award at the 12th International ICAD Users' Group (IIUG) Conference in Detroit, KTI Marketing Director, Michele Turcotte, said `We are delighted to be associated with customers like CorusAE, who are achieving engineering excellence by applying The KBO Environment technology in an innovative and strategic way.'
According to Jeff Edington, Executive Director, Technology, 'This is a great example of technology for profit. We at Corus have a long-term commitment to the knowledge-based environment and we recognise that KBE is a powerful integrator for our materials, processing and applications technologies. With our KBE capability, we can deliver superior, differentiated solutions to our customers.'
Pat Jordan of Honeywell (Allied Signals), the current IIUG Chair, said of the shortlisted presentations for the KBO Prize, "the standard is now so high that we're having to think about potential projects for next year almost as soon as this year's Conference is ended."