Altair > Case Studies > Automating Crankshaft Modeling for BMW Motorrad Using Altair SimLab™

Automating Crankshaft Modeling for BMW Motorrad Using Altair SimLab™

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Robots - Parallel Robots

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Buildings

Applicable Functions

Procurement

Use Cases

Building Automation & Control
Time Sensitive Networking

About The Customer

BMW Motorrad is the motorcycle division of BMW, a German multinational company manufacturing luxury automobiles and motorcycles. With the first motorcycle manufactured in 1923, their current product line includes a variety of shaft, chain, and belt-driven models designed for off-road, dual-purpose, and sports powered by a variety of engines ranging from a single cylinder, various two cylinder (parallel twin, flat twin, boxer etc.), four cylinders inline and six-cylinder inline ones.

The Challenge

BMW Motorrad, the motorcycle division of BMW, was facing a challenge with the crankshaft model building process. The process was previously outsourced to external providers, with the average time taken for a model being between 1-2 weeks depending on the engine type. The organization required an annual estimate of new crankshaft models to be produced for budgetary decisions. However, the actual production of the models often fell short of estimates due to varying constraints on the part of the suppliers. Additionally, for any additional crankshaft models when required, the overall order processing time could be lengthy. To facilitate effective budgetary planning and decision-making, accuracy in model production forecasts with a high degree of confidence became necessary.

The Solution

BMW Motorrad chose Altair as a development partner to explore alternate solutions. The initial course of action was to clone the classical approach, duplicating a previous vendor’s process and building the model without using all the SimLab features. In parallel, Altair engineers developed the same model using SimLab technology and demonstrated the process to BMW. The idea was to establish a process for automated crankshaft meshing in SimLab. With the second project, the classical process was migrated to a complete SimLab process. The semi-automated process applied by BMW Motorrad to model an engine crankshaft for structural and fatigue analysis using SimLab includes group assignment, mesh controls & surface mesh, layered elements, volume mesh & RBEs, and renumbering and group set definition.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the SimLab process has significantly reduced model creation time for BMW by about 80%. This has enabled better budgetary forecasting and decision-making, record improvements in the production process and a great degree of flexibility. With model building now insourced, they can be built as and when required, without dependence upon external vendors. This has not only improved the efficiency of the process but also the consistency in model quality.

Quantitative Benefit

Reduction of 80% in model creation time – ½ day vs. two weeks of modeling time
User interaction process that previously took about an hour, has now reduced to 5-10 minutes using SimLab
Time to build a first new model has been reduced to about half a day and for consecutive variations to about an hour