Competing future vehicle concepts have drives using clean energy stored in batteries or hydrogen. On-board storage of high-pressure hydrogen gas to supply fuel cells needs weight-efficient pressure vessels utilizing composite materials, that operate safely and reliably under challenging thermo-mechanical service conditions, be affordable and meet standards. Partnering with the Altair Composites Team, CIKONI identified the benefits of Altair Multiscale Designer™ to increase simulation efficiency by its virtual material characterization to create accurate and reliable material models for structural simulation. They applied Multiscale Designer, Altair OptiStruct and Altair ESAComp interfaced with a third-party filament winding simulation package to handle the simulation process.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator wanted to explore ways to ensure that an innovative, ropeless elevator system design was as lightweight as possible in order to maximize the loading capacity of the cabins. Altair ProductDesign was selected to explore methods and materials that could help to minimize the weight of the design due to the company’s experience in removing mass from products in the automotive and aerospace sectors.

Ford Otosan in Turkey designs big stamping dies with the help of topology optimization using OptiStruct. Weight savings of 20% were possible on their first attempt to try optimization on a new stamping part.

To expand the rpm range of a motorcycle engine, a new type of rocker arm with lower inertia was needed at KTM. The new rocker arm was required to have the same, or better stiffness and deformation level as the previous design. KTM used Altair HyperWorks™ for nonlinear topology optimization and nonlinear structural analysis to develop the new rocker arm. Thanks to this, the component inertia could be reduced by 15 percent, component mass was reduced by 21 percent, and the stiffness increased by 14 percent which lead to an extension of the rotational speed by 150-200 rpm.