ETA offers design optimization services for existing product refinement or clean sheet designs to complement internal product development processes. It can provide significant results in terms of mass and cost reduction, while overall product performance is improved. The design optimization process can be applied to any product design from a component, sub-system assembly, to full vehicle. The engineering team uses advanced software tools to synchronize the material load path (topology) that is required based on pre-determined multidisciplinary load cases of the structure with the 3G Optimization.
The optimization process employed analyzes hundreds to thousands of possible designs to find the most efficient design solution. It finds the optimal shape for the design and the optimal level and placement of the material. Beyond structural performance, the balance of multidisciplinary objectives such as cost, manufacturing constraints and material handling are considered at the onset of the project.
Design Optimization Results
- Reduce Product Development Cost by 10-15%
- Improve Manufacturing Efficiency
- Reduce Product Mass by 20-25%
- Improve Product Performance
- Improve Fuel Efficiency
In order to develop a brand new product, ETA engineers start from a pre-determined design space and apply topology optimization in order to produce an initial skeleton design, which is closely tied to the material choices and load path. The resulting design is then analyzed with optimization tools to extract further cost and mass savings.