Having used CATIA V5 for design since 2018, Sujan Contitech felt that embracing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, including SIMULIA for simulation and ENOVIA for project and product data management, was a sensible move to help it improve innovation, enhance collaboration and strengthen its position in the market.
The implementation was supported by local Dassault Systèmes business partner EDS Technologies, who took responsibility for process mapping, installation of the platform, training and the delivery of ongoing support. EDS Technologies also installed the POWER’BY connector which, thanks to its multi-CAD support capabilities, helped Sujan Contitech use its existing CATIA V5 data in the platform and enabled it to seamlessly integrate supplier inputs.
The benefits have been immediate. Thanks to its new MODSIM capabilities, Sujan Contitech’s engineers can now validate designs as they create them, cutting out sequential delays and fostering faster iterations.
“Using SIMULIA, designers can now accurately predict the stiffness of rubber components, right within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” Kamble said. “This has reduced our design cycles by around 20%, saving us a lot of time lost in iterations.”
The company has also developed a workflow in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform that allows designers to predict the impact of stress on metal brackets – and this has delivered even more efficiencies, particularly in the development of complex high-pressure die cast (HPDC) solutions. These types of brackets often require the addition of ribs – thin structural reinforcements – which make their geometry more complicated. These features are especially challenging for meshing – the process of breaking down a complex 3D model into smaller elements to prepare it for simulation analysis, and have historically taken engineers a lot of time to prepare.
“With linear calculations in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, designers can accurately identify the location and level of stress on a bracket, before the final nonlinear analysis in Abaqus,” Kamble said. “This approach has cut lead time by about 40%.”
As well as expediting the development of individual components, Sujan Contitech is also using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to manage complex assemblies for products like engine mounts and suspension bushings which are made up of multiple different materials. “We have to integrate rubber parts with all kinds of materials like sheet metal and plastics,” Kamble said. “With the platform, we are able to manage such assemblies very easily.”