Altair > Case Studies > HyperWorks at B/E Aerospace: Lighter, Safer Seats for Airline Passengers

HyperWorks at B/E Aerospace: Lighter, Safer Seats for Airline Passengers

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Private Cloud
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud

Applicable Industries

Aerospace
Buildings

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Onsite Human Safety Management
Time Sensitive Networking

Services

Testing & Certification

About The Customer

B/E Aerospace is a leading manufacturer of cabin interior products for commercial and private passenger aircraft. With design and manufacturing facilities across the globe, one of their leading products is their line of commercial and business airline seats. These seats are engineered and tested at its Commercial Airplane Products Group in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. B/E Aerospace designs commercial airline seats, along with many other furnishings for aircraft interiors, at its NC facility. Their design and finite-element analysis (FEA) teams share a motto: A Cheaper Ticket and A Safer Ride.

The Challenge

B/E Aerospace, a leading manufacturer of cabin interior products for commercial and private passenger aircraft, was faced with the challenge of designing lighter and safer seats for airline passengers. The rising fuel prices were forcing airlines to find inventive ways to reduce weight within an aircraft, which in turn would lower fuel costs and ultimately ticket prices. B/E Aerospace was tasked with not only reducing the weight of the seats but also ensuring that the components provide better passenger protection in emergencies. The design of these seats was completely market-driven, with airlines demanding comfort and features for their passengers, while also asking for lighter seats to combat the relentless increase in fuel costs. The challenge was to accommodate these demands within the constraints of safety certification.

The Solution

B/E Aerospace incorporated the use of HyperWorks and computer-aided engineering (CAE) into their product cycle. This was after witnessing the success of HyperWorks at their Miami facility, where engineers designed first-class seats for private jets. Altair Engineering, the company behind HyperWorks, placed one of its highly qualified engineers on site for three months to support the design of their latest commercial seat products. During this period, the on-site engineer demonstrated the benefits of CAE using HyperWorks tools. Lead structure and certification engineer, Yanbin Liu, was tasked with improving B/E’s design process by developing a process for virtual certification by incorporating advanced CAE methods. Using Altair HyperMesh and the topology optimization capabilities of Altair OptiStruct early in the design process, Dr. Liu was able to reduce the weight of a typical leg-and-spreader unit for analysis by 32 percent.

Operational Impact

The incorporation of HyperWorks and CAE into the product cycle has led to remarkable success for B/E Aerospace. The use of these tools has not only expedited the certification process with simulation but has also found more efficient and better ways to design seat structures. This has improved the product cycle time in an increasingly demanding market. B/E Aerospace is now able to design and build better airline seats that offer better safety and comfort for passengers, reduced fuel costs for the airlines, and by reducing pollution, a step forward for the environment. The use of this FEA technology has also improved their First Time Yield during Dynamic testing and optimized the part design for weight and cost.

Quantitative Benefit

Reduced the weight of a typical leg-and-spreader unit for analysis by 32 percent.
Saved up to 60% on the cost of preliminary tests.
Plan to have three additional engineers working on certification and structure design by the end of 2008.