Altair > Case Studies > Democratizing Wheel Design: Altair Solutions Streamline Accuride’s CAE Wheel Assembly Process

Democratizing Wheel Design: Altair Solutions Streamline Accuride’s CAE Wheel Assembly Process

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Specialty Vehicles

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Digital Twin
Virtual Reality

About The Customer

Accuride Corporation is a global leader in the supply and manufacture of commercial and passenger vehicle components. Their product range includes steel and aluminum vehicle wheels and wheel-end components, and assemblies for the European automotive and global agricultural, construction, and industrial equipment markets. With its headquarters in Livonia, Michigan, Accuride has facilities across North America, Europe, and Asia. The company leverages over 125 years of experience and advanced engineering analysis methods to create efficient designs and deliver value to its customers. Accuride has been focusing on implementing company-wide virtual product development methods to democratize the product development process.

The Challenge

Accuride Corporation, a leading global commercial and passenger vehicle component supplier, faced a significant challenge in their product development process. The creation of a solid hexahedral mesh, a crucial step in developing truck and passenger wheels, was a complex and time-consuming task. This process required an in-depth understanding of advanced meshing techniques and component quality standards. Moreover, the task was so specialized that only a few engineers at Accuride could handle it, leading to potential delays in time-critical projects. The company also struggled to share this meshing knowledge beyond department boundaries, making it difficult to include everyone in the process, especially simulation beginners.

The Solution

To address this challenge, Accuride collaborated with Altair to develop an automated solution that significantly reduced the time spent on preparing surfaces and elements, thereby easing the overall development efforts. They utilized the model build and assembly tools of Altair® HyperWorks®, an AI-driven simulation solution, to develop a process that enabled engineers to manage multiple configurations, mesh variants, and part instances independently of finite element (FE) specialists. The HyperWorks solution automated the Hexa-Mesh creation of truck and passenger car wheels based on user inputs like element size, the density of the solid mesh, and more, through a customized graphical user interface (GUI). This solution allowed the Accuride team to run a complete analysis and deliver reliable results in a much shorter timeframe.

Operational Impact

The collaboration between Accuride and Altair resulted in a customized HyperWorks solution that fully automated the Hexa-Mesh process for truck and passenger cars’ wheel assemblies. This new workflow not only significantly reduced the time spent on the process but also democratized simulation to include non-subject matter experts and simulation beginners through a standardized, automated solution. This ensured that all teams and products met Accuride’s high product standards. The ease of setting up HyperWorks and the outstanding results it delivered led Accuride to plan its use throughout the company, including in the Accuride Partner Supply Chain. This is expected to further accelerate decision-making and streamline product development and innovation.

Quantitative Benefit

The new automated workflow reduced a process that used to take seven hours of manual work to a mere seven minutes.
The solution is estimated to save Accuride up to 765 hours per year.
The solution allows for the management of multiple configurations, mesh variants, and part instances.