Continental Engineering Companies UK (CES) are a number one automotive design consultancy and engineering companies supplier for electrical motors, inverters, PDUs and DCDCs. CES push boundaries, maximising energy density, minimising packaging quantity and element lots. Clients at all times have very aggressive goal weights requiring extremely environment friendly cooling methods. That is the place progressive packaging options grow to be important in offering engineering options and assembly prospects’ necessities.
In CES’ newest venture, the necessities to combine into the automobile energy prepare have been such that the one method to obtain a design resolution was to mix the motor and inverter, using a novel cooling structure. This design meant that delicate inside castings with skinny partitions can be required and thus CES began trying on the newest casting methods and the companies that Sylatech present.
Sylatech was eager to display that its clear sheet reappraisal of sand-casting methodology may provide new alternatives for element design and was keen to satisfy the difficult goal of an ultra-lightweight motor-inverter housing with skinny solid wall thicknesses which are nonetheless machinable.
A 3D idea was designed which then went by way of the usual CES laptop simulations and analyses primarily based on buyer necessities. As enhancements and efficiencies have been made, the housing design went by way of a number of iterations. As a part of this design loop, Sylatech carried out their casting simulations and have been capable of suggestions to CES in a constructive design loop as a accomplished design was finalised.
Sylatech proposed a 100% (Voxeljet) sand printed resolution to make sure design flexibility was as free as doable all through the venture life cycle. Having supported with casting Design for Manufacture, the corporate set about calculating and modelling a runner system with a relentless fill fee of 0.5m/sec. Commonplace options akin to a pouring basin and stopper, constrained sprue and runners, vortex traps (to seize the forefront of oxide-rich aluminium) have been rapidly established, adopted by extra nuanced additions akin to 60PPI filters on all gates flowing into the mould cavity. Velocity, temperature, gate circulation stress and dendrite arm spacing simulations have been then modelled with Sylatech’s FLOW3D CAST software program.
Sylatech’s casting new product introduction (NPI) engineer favours this digital strategy to sample design. FLOW 3D allows exact understanding of how the steel flows within the runner system and cavity. The selection of casting solely with sand printed moulds yields important design freedom however the draw back is that it leaves no room for error. Any casting defects would lead to costly re-prints. It’s subsequently crucial that the NPI course of locations such a powerful emphasis on fill calculation and simulation verification. Thus, a complete of twenty-two iterations of runner system have been accomplished earlier than a remaining design freeze was agreed.
CES’ means to make use of CFD, FEA and Thermal computational evaluation software program along side Sylatech’s casting evaluation software program was integral to the design course of to satisfy necessities, ‘proper first time’ and shortened deadlines. It’s crucial to have the ability to design, analyze/simulate, and experiment nearly in order that the completed design can meet the objectives in actual world testing.
Complimentary to the software program analyses is using non-destructive testing (NDT) on the pre-machined solid half. Radiography is right for expedited integrity checks, offering reside, nonetheless and video imaging which will be seen in actual time earlier than greenlighting the machining course of.
The ultimate housing design achieved round 64% weight saving from preliminary design to remaining product and is roughly 47% underneath the coolant stress drop requirement, but meets stress, vibration and fatigue targets. Early communication, cross social gathering adoption of analytical strategies for design, manufacture and testing and on-going efficient collaboration have been essential to reaching these goals.
