Siemens Digital Industries Software announced today the latest updates to its Simcenter™ Testlab™ offering to help advanced manufacturers on their journey to zero prototypes and develop products faster, smarter and earlier.
The journey to zero prototypes really means zero full product prototypes, with physical testing still playing a critical role in testing the components that make up the full system. Tests of these components are then used to correlate and update the corresponding simulation models to ensure they accurately predict the real world. This ultimately helps development teams test different variations and configurations faster than they could before and is enabled by new capabilities in Simcenter Testlab to enhance testing efficiency, expand testing capabilities, improve collaboration and automation.
“Manufacturers are looking for opportunities to accelerate their zero prototypes initiatives. Advances made with Simcenter Testlab demonstrate how the use of virtual pre-test planning with the reuse of digital twin data, when combined with centralized data management collaboration capabilities and flexible, rugged data acquisition hardware designed for use in the field, are changing the testing industry,” said Wilfried Claes, product manager director, Simulation and Test, Siemens Digital Industries Software.
Impact testing efficiency
Up to a 50% overall efficiency gain in complex impact testing campaigns can be gained with the latest updates. First, test engineers can reduce time by reusing existing CAD data to define instrumentation and points for impact. The additional support for using multiple hammers in parallel during impact testing allows engineers to extend the frequency range, which is necessary for evaluating the unique characteristics of electric vehicles.
The testing software automatically merges the data from multiple hammers on the fly so you can see results during testing. Since engineers no longer need to change hammer every time and manually merge data, Simcenter Testlab reduces overall testing time and allows testing teams to cover more impact points in less time.
Modal Analysis of a gearbox housing with Simcenter Testlab and Simcenter SCADAS Mobile. Engineer looking at screen during physical testing. Below the screen Simcenter 3D is open and combined.
Expanding Testing Capabilities
This update to Simcenter Testlab also introduces three key new capabilities to expand the testing capabilities of the software/hardware offering. The new Virtual Prototype Assembly tools bring together physical test and simulation data to create virtual prototypes with a focus on enabling performance evaluation of different configurations and variants before building physical prototypes. Alongside this, the new NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) Simulator allows users tolisten to a product prototype before it is built, supporting time domain loads and auralizing combined testing and simulation results – which enables the development of pleasing experience for customers and evaluation against sound quality metrics. Finally, the new Mission Synthesis tools can streamline the durability testing process by defining mission profiles, acquiring real-life vibration data and synthesizing test profiles to predict potential failure points accurately.
Enabling Collaboration
The latest update to Simcenter Testlab also includes additional capabilities across data management and automation to help customers bring greater organization and centralization to key test data and to provide efficiency gains. The new Simcenter Testlab Data Management capability provides centralized storage for all NVH data, allowing easy retrieval and annotation across different contexts and collaboration between engineering teams by supporting storing single values, such as critical KPIs, and immediate replay of test data directly from the server without the need to download locally. In addition, the new Simcenter Testlab workflow automation tools can be used to automatically retrieve, process and publish data - reducing manual effort, minimizing errors and enabling consistent analysis and centralized data management.
Simcenter SCADAS RS hardware for acquiring road loads during a field test on a motorbike.
Smarter Field Testing
For test professionals conducting test processes in the field, the Simcenter SCADAS RS hardware combined with Simcenter Testlab software has been designed to enhance in-field data acquisition. Remote connectivity helps engineers validate the data being captured in real-time without having to be at the proving ground. New event marking capabilities let test technicians and drivers note when certain events occur during the test drive, helping the engineer understand and interpret test data more accurately. Finally, the hardware’s rugged design ensures in-field testing even in the toughest test conditions, from extreme temperatures to moisture, dust and high shock and vibration.
To learn more about how Simcenter Testlab is helping advanced manufacturers on their journey to zero prototypes and develop products faster, smarter and earlier, visit: https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/simcenter/whats-new-in-simcenter-testlab-2406/
