Electromagnetics
Structural mechanicsCase Studies: Structural mechanics
Automotive Accessories Supplier
MONOFLEX AB, Sweden; ANSYS DesignSpace
Activity
MONOFLEX AB is a leading developer of tow bars. At their facilities in Hallstahammar, about 12 miles from Stockholm, they develop and sell market leading tow bars for most brands of cars. The experience gained in nearly 30 years of manufacture, common sense and modern technology have helped them to produce four tow bar alternatives. For every new car released, MONOFLEX develops a new prototype of the tow bar. Every new model is tested according to tough EUdemands.
Testimonial
“Product development is much faster, because we do not have to make as many tests in our test bench. The reason being that we can simulate tests using ANSYS simulation programme and choose the best of several alternatives. In many cases we have also been able to reduce material and dimensions after analysing simulated tests.“
Conny KRISTENSEN, Design Department Manager MONOFLEX AB
Challenge
- MONOFLEX wanted to investigate more design alternatives within the same time frame without having to build new prototypes and to conduct more physical tests.
- Another challenge was to reduce the weight of the tow bars.
Solution
The integration of ANSYS DesignSpace into their current design environment and 3D-CAD system, SolidWorks from Dassault, gave MONOFLEX the possibility to quickly conduct several "what-if" analyses and thereby virtually test more design alternatives and configurations. Also ANSYS DesignSpace gave MONOFLEX the possibility to reduce material from the designs.
Benefits
The benefits from the combined solution ANSYS DesignSpace integrated to the 3D-CAD system is that MONOFLEX now produce products with a higher product quality and performance than before.
- Using now less material their products are also more costeffective.
- Time to market is a challenge that ANSYS DesignSpace helped them to control.
