Composites

Automotive Manufacturers Count on FiberSIM® Composites Engineering Software

Whether you’re a race car engineer trying to design a vehicle that can earn a checkered flag, or a commercial car designer trying to enhance fuel efficiency, advanced composites have become an integral part of producing today’s advanced automobiles.

But the true promise of composites can only be realized if leading edge engineering and manufacturing tools and processes are available. VISTAGY’s FiberSIM® composites engineering software fits that description by providing a digital model that serves as the backbone for the entire product development process.

For instance, Lotus Renault GP (formerly Renault F1 Team) has used FiberSIM to develop a variety of key composite components for almost a decade, including the chassis, gear box, side pod, and double diffuser (floor). The team was able to reduce the time it took to design and manufacture a composite diffuser for its race car from 12 weeks to six weeks using FiberSIM.

Yet with all the success achieved using composites on low volume, high performance automobiles, there are many challenges in adopting structural composites for the high volume, commercial automotive market—including the need to provide engineers with rapid and accurate structural and crash performance analysis; new design methods suitable for high rate composite manufacturing; tools for selecting and simulating new materials and processes, and cost and weight feedback early in the design process.

FiberSIM answers these challenges with a variety of capabilities, including multi-layer material simulation—a significant factor in automotive composites that provides insight into the drapeability of non-crimp fabrics (NCF) and other new materials—as well as the corresponding manufacturing processes, such as forming.

With the pressures to improve fuel economy and lower production costs, composites hold great promise for the automotive industry. VISTAGY recognizes the challenges that the automotive industry faces when designing with new materials and processes and is working with its industry partners and investing in the engineering tools needed to exploit the full potential of these materials.

Learn more about our solutions for commercial automobiles and high performance automobiles.