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 part lots. Prospects at all times have very aggressive goal weights requiring extremely environment friendly cooling methods. That is the place modern packaging options change into important in offering engineering options and assembly clients’ necessities.
In CES’ newest undertaking, the necessities to combine into the car energy practice had been such that the one strategy to obtain a design answer 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 wanting on the newest casting strategies 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 part design and was keen to fulfill 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 via the usual CES pc simulations and analyses based mostly on buyer necessities. As enhancements and efficiencies had been made, the housing design went via a number of iterations. As a part of this design loop, Sylatech carried out their casting simulations and had been capable of suggestions to CES in a constructive design loop as a accomplished design was finalised.
Sylatech proposed a 100% (Voxeljet) sand printed answer to make sure design flexibility was as free as doable all through the undertaking life cycle. Having supported with casting Design for Manufacture, the corporate set about calculating and modelling a runner system with a continuing fill fee of 0.5m/sec. Commonplace options resembling a pouring basin and stopper, constrained sprue and runners, vortex traps (to seize the forefront of oxide-rich aluminium) had been shortly established, adopted by extra nuanced additions resembling 60PPI filters on all gates flowing into the mould cavity. Velocity, temperature, gate circulation stress and dendrite arm spacing simulations had been then modelled with Sylatech’s FLOW3D CAST software program.
Sylatech’s casting new product introduction (NPI) engineer favours this digital method to sample design. FLOW 3D allows exact understanding of how the metallic flows within the runner system and cavity. The selection of casting solely with sand printed moulds yields vital 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 robust emphasis on fill calculation and simulation verification. Thus, a complete of twenty-two iterations of runner system had been accomplished earlier than a closing 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 fulfill 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 targets in actual world testing.
Complimentary to the software program analyses is the usage of non-destructive testing (NDT) on the pre-machined solid half. Radiography is right for expedited integrity checks, offering stay, nonetheless and video imaging which might be considered in actual time earlier than greenlighting the machining course of.
The ultimate housing design achieved round 64% weight saving from preliminary design to closing product and is roughly 47% beneath the coolant stress drop requirement, but meets stress, vibration and fatigue targets. Early communication, cross celebration adoption of analytical strategies for design, manufacture and testing and on-going efficient collaboration had been essential to attaining these aims.
