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Press Release, Sheffield, UK, October 2010
Safe Technology’s John Draper presents two fatigue training events in the UK, hosted by EXPRO at the Centre of Learning and Development in Aberdeen, Scotland.
As industry puts increasing pressure on manufacturers to use less material to deliver lightweight but stronger components, lower warranty and recall costs and all in less time, the need for companies across all industry sectors to find economical and accurate ways to predict failure, optimise designs and validate products becomes more pressing. Many companies use advanced Finite Element analysis to calculate design stresses, but the fatigue analysis is often still done by manually picking stress points for spread-sheet analysis. This is time consuming and unreliable because it is easy to miss failure locations. Component validation by fatigue testing a prototype design in the test lab is also time-consuming and costly, often leading to a lengthy cycle of design-test-redesign.
By using modern methods of fatigue analysis combined with accurate, state of the art software, designers are now able to calculate fatigue life, where and when cracks will appear, whether they will propagate, where adjustments need to be made by adding or reducing material – as well as establish which loads are causing fatigue damage, what is causing cracking and how reliable the design is. Fatigue analysis software also enables the exploration of more design possibilities earlier in the design process thereby shortening the design cycle. In a nutshell, right-first-time design, faster time to market, reduced product calls and warranty costs and avoidance of premature failure.
Safe Technology combines skills in developing software with many years of expertise in durability and fatigue to bring to industry sectors such as offshore, oil and gas, wind energy, aerospace, automotive and medical, the most technically advanced capabilities for both simple and sophisticated applications – now including weld fatigue analysis and fatigue analysis of composites.
Developing a Design Process for Durability: Free one day seminar Details & booking »
Modern Metal Fatigue Analysis: Two day fatigue theory course Details & booking »
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, August 2010
Safe Technology Limited announces the launch of a new module for the advanced fatigue analysis of composite materials.
As the use of composite materials becomes more widespread in the drive to produce strong yet lightweight products, there is an increasing necessity to understand their behaviour and predict design life. Yet an accurate and robust fatigue life prediction tool for composite materials has not been available to meet this growing demand – until now.
fe-safe/Composites™ is a new product from Safe Technology Ltd, developers of the leading durability analysis software for finite element models, fe-safe™. Safe Technology has partnered with Firehole Composites, experts in advanced composite analysis, to develop fe-safe/Composites™, a unique and advanced solution enabling the fatigue analysis of composite materials.
Historically, predicting fatigue life in composites has been challenging because even simple load states lead to complex behaviour in the individual composite constituents. Furthermore, the effects of frequency and load history can only be dealt with adequately by using physics-based approaches.
fe-safe/Composites™ meets these challenges head-on by using Firehole’s Helius:Fatigue technology platform. Helius:Fatigue combines the constituent-based failure analysis method of Multicontinuum Theory (MCT) with the well-established kinetic theory of fracture, to introduce a game-changing technology for fatigue life prediction in composite structures. Additionally, it does so without the need for exotic material data or substantial computational cost.
fe-safe/Composites™ extends to composite materials all the comprehensive capabilities of fe-safe™ to calculate complex loading histories which up until now have only been available for use with metals. Users can simulate real, industrial loading conditions, and thanks to fe-safe™’s ability to use different fatigue algorithms for different sections of the FE model, the user can also combine the analysis of composites and the analysis of metals in the same run.
fe-safe/Composites™ is available for purchase directly from Safe Technology or through their worldwide network of re-sellers. Additionally, Safe Technology and Firehole Composites will team up in September to offer the first in a series of webinars demonstrating the features and functionality of fe-safe/Composites™.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Firehole Composites to bring an exclusive and unique fatigue solution to the composites market. Our companies make a formidable partnership, each the technical leader in our specialist field; Firehole in advanced composites analysis, and Safe Technology in durability analysis from FEA,” said John Draper, CEO, Safe Technology Ltd. “Our teams have worked well together during the development of this product and we are confident that we can meet the rigorous demands the composites industry will make on this technology.”
For more information see the fe-safe/Composites™ page
About Firehole Composites
Firehole Composites supplies innovative computer-aided simulation software and services for composite materials to the aerospace, defense, automotive and energy industries. Firehole’s Helius:MCT software enables the design of composite structures without the numerous expensive testing cycles traditionally deployed, allowing for a faster time-to-market and more reliable designs. The company’s mission is to enable wide-spread use of composite materials leading to lighter, stronger, safer and more fuel efficient applications. They offer a suite of products designed to significantly improve the composite design
For more information, please visit www.fireholetech.com
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, July 2010
FE-DESIGN and Safe Technology Limited have collaborated to develop support in TOSCA™ for fe-safe™. This support allows users to optimise their component for durability using fe-safe™ within the TOSCA™ shape optimisation process, thereby shortening the design cycle. The specific integration of TOSCA Structure™ with fe-safe™ has been deployed and tested at several customer sites, yielding excellent results.
“Free-form shape optimisation is very efficient for increasing durability and/or reducing weight based on a non-linear FEA model. Shorter development and innovation cycles can only be achieved using upfront simulation and advanced optimisation techniques extensively” says an enthusiastic CAE Engineer, who is using fe-safe™ and TOSCA™ to optimise engine parts.
The optimisation process starts with a calculation of stresses and other mechanical response values as nodal displacements, reaction forces or plastic strains, using any supported FEA solver. The resulting stresses are imported into fe-safe™, which performs a fatigue analysis and transfers the results to TOSCA Structure™ for the optimisation process to perform design changes. The FEA model with modified shape is then fed back into the FEA suite to continue round the optimisation loop.
TOSCA™ automatically starts the required finite element and fe-safe™ analysis, fully integrating both products into the design cycle. This achieves a rapid optimisation of designs that combine durability with efficient use of materials. The optimisation task can combine various requirements, such as weight, stiffness, durability, and plastic deformations as well as many different manufacturing constraints. The resulting design will be lighter, stronger and fit for purpose.
Existing TOSCA™ and fe-safe™ users wanting to integrate fe-safe™ into their TOSCA™ shape optimisation process should contact FE-DESIGN at info@fe-design.de.
About FE-DESIGN GmbH:
FE-DESIGN is a leading solutions partner for engineering services and software solutions in the fields of simulation, automation and optimisation. FE-DESIGN develops and distributes the structural optimisation software TOSCA Structure with modules for topology, shape and bead optimisation, and TOSCA Fluid, a modular built-on software system for a non-parametric topology optimisation of guided fluid-flows.
FE-DESIGN, headquartered in Karlsruhe has further locations in Europe. Authorised distribution partners in Asia, South America, and in the USA represent the product range worldwide.
TOSCA is a trademark of FE-DESIGN GmbH.
For more information, please visit www.fe-design.com
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, July 2010
BETA CAE Systems and Safe Technology have collaborated to develop a Verity® Weld Definition Tool in ANSA for Verity® in fe-safe™. The result is a significant reduction in the weld modeling process and subsequent improved efficiency of weld fatigue analysis for ANSA users. The tool was initially developed for Volvo Trucks NA and is now available as standard to all ANSA users using Verity® in fe-safe™.
The automatic generation of weld shells and heat-affected zones according to weld type (Lap Weld, Y-Weld, Edge-Weld, Crimp-Weld, etc.) was introduced in ANSA v13x to serve the needs of fatigue analysis modelling. The shape of the resulting weld can be fully controlled through numerous options (Heat Affected Zones, Primary/Offset Row, Offset Distance, Height, etc).The Verity® Weld Definition Tool can be utilised during the process of identifying and modeling seamweld, leading to a significant reduction in the weld fatigue analysis process.
ANSA from BETA CAE Systems is a leading multidisciplinary CAE pre-processor which provides full model build-up capability in an integrated environment for numerous analysis codes. Its functionality spans from data translators, clean up and assembly to batch meshing, model completion, check and solution scenario definition. Integrated with Data Management, Task Management, and scripting language in addition to other tools, it provides a unique productive modelling environment. ANSA is widely used across many industries including: automotive, aerospace, bio-mechanics, defence, marine and many others.
About BETA CAE Systems S.A.
BETA CAE Systems S.A. has its headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is a private engineering software company committed to the development of best-in-class pre- and post-processing solutions for multidisciplinary CAE applications. The BETA CAE Systems flagship product suite comprising ANSA pre-processor and META post-processor, holds a worldwide leading position in the CAE software.
BETA CAE Systems S.A. are a Safe Technology Partner.
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, July 2010
The world’s fastest growing motorcycle manufacturer, Triumph Motorcycles, has selected fe-safe™ advanced fatigue analysis software to help produce fully optimised designs on a range of world class components in shorter times than ever before.
fe-safe™ has been chosen by Triumph to help produce advanced, robust, lightweight parts in a shorter design cycle by enhancing its in-house fatigue analysis procedures. Traditionally, fatigue analysis has been carried out using hand calculations, spreadsheets and physical testing. By creating a simulation based design process that combines Pro/Mechanica FEA software and fe-safe™, Triumph can explore more design options and optimise designs so that they can be confident that their designs will pass physical tests first time.
Triumph’s aim is to design and craft motorcycles that deliver a great riding experience through the fusion of a well-balanced, easy to handle chassis and strong, flexible engines. In line with a company philosophy based on innovation and expertise, a decision was made to adopt the most advanced method of fatigue analysis currently available.
Triumph selected fe-safe after detailed research, because the software is based on sound fatigue theory with the adaptable functionality necessary to perform fatigue analysis on the wide range of components designed by the company.
About Triumph Motorcycles
First established in 1902 and solely owned by British entrepreneur John Bloor for the last 26 years, Triumph is the largest British automotive manufacturer, producing around 50,000 motorcycles a year.
Triumph Motorcycles has always had its own distinctive character and a history of creating motorcycles that become design classics. The inspiration and engineering passion that birthed the iconic Triumph Bonneville of the 60’s has today created bikes like the stunning Rocket III and the unmistakable Speed Triple. At the heart of Triumph's philosophy is a firm commitment to developing truly unique motorcycles that are distinctive in looks, design and performance.
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, June 2010
Safe Technology held the 5th fe-safe™ International User Group Meeting on Wednesday June 9th, 2010, at Michigan State University, Management Education Center, MI, USA. The meeting was followed on Thursday June 10th by a day of Technical Open Forums.
The event was a great success attracting the highest number of attendees yet. The attendees included current fe-safe™ users, soon-to-be fe-safe™ users and representatives from partner organisations, from as far afield as Japan and Argentina.
The standard of presentations and papers from partners and users was extremely high, providing another technically advanced and highly valuable day for all.
Presentations covered the application of fe-safe™, Verity® in fe-safe™ and fe-safe/TURBOlife™ across a broad range of industries, applications and research areas: from steel casting fatigue simulations to the fatigue of plastics; from the fatigue analysis of nitinol for use in arterial stents, to racing car components; from the fatigue of composite materials to weld fatigue analysis of automotive chassis systems; from the thermal fatigue analysis of an automotive exhaust system to the fatigue analysis of cyclic equipment in the petrochemical industry.
Our current R&D projects into the fatigue of plastics and nitinol were presented, along with the ground-breaking and exciting discoveries that we and our partners are making in these advanced fields of research.
We also announced the release of our latest module, fe-safe/Composites™. The fe-safe/Composites™ module is powered by Helius:Fatigue, a technology that has been licensed exclusively from composites experts, Firehole Composites. Firehole presented this unique new product and the technology behind it.
We were honoured to welcome another prestigious keynote speaker; renowned fatigue specialist, Professor Norman Dowling. Prof Dowling has published numerous papers and reports and his well respected book, “Mechanical Behavior of Materials”, has been widely adopted as an engineering textbook, used extensively by academics and practicing engineers alike. His keynote presentation was his recent work on “Mean Stress Effects In Stress-Life And Strain-Life Fatigue”. His presentation was particularly well-received by fe-safe™ users.
The Technical Forum Day on Thursday 10th provided a more informal environment for sharing information and stimulating discussion on key areas of fatigue and durability facing engineers today: Weld Fatigue, High Temperature Fatigue, Vibration Fatigue and the Fatigue of Composite Materials. Each session was chaired by a Safe Technology engineer or partner and was attended by key Safe Technology representatives, fe-safe™ users and partners. The day was educational and informative for both attendees and the Safe Technology team!
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, June 2010
Read how the combination of fe-safe™ and ANSYS software helps Cummins Inc. improve life prediction accuracy in an article in ANSYS magazine.
read the article »
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, May 2010
In world-class auto racing, machanics often reposition the brake pedal face to comply with driver preference but moving the pedal off centre introduces a significant twisting moment - a situation which can lead to metal fatigue.
Read how Pratt & Miller Engineering used ANSYS and fe-safe to redesign a brake pedal, just 3 days before the next race! The end result was a lighter, stronger and more reliable pedal with a much improved fatigue life.
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, March 2010
On April 14th, Safe Technology CEO, John Draper, will present the keynote address at the Durability CAE session (M106) at the SAE World Congress in Detroit, USA, April 12 – 15th.
He will outline five key aspects of fatigue theory required for accurate fatigue analysis in his presentation Essential Steps in Fatigue Analysis at the M106-Durability CAE technical session.
John Draper will look at technically advanced fatigue analysis software for FEA models and introduce some of the new developments in modern fatigue analysis methods. He will outline how Safe Technology’s fe-safe™ incorporates these theories to produce the most sophisticated fatigue analysis technology available in commercial software, pushing the boundaries of fatigue analysis by dedicating R&D resources to developing new methods for addressing growing fatigue requirements in complex areas such as thermo-mechanical fatigue and weld fatigue. The presentation will also address ways to improve speed of analysis without compromising on the accuracy of the fatigue results and provides customer case study examples in a range of industrial applications.
Biography
John Draper graduated from the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, UK. He worked as a fatigue design specialist in the aerospace industry during the 1970's, where he wrote an early fatigue analysis computer program. He then joined the British Rail Research Division to manage projects involving fatigue research, fatigue testing and strain-gauge based fatigue failure investigation. He contributed to the development of British Rail's strain-based fatigue analysis software. In 1987 he formed the company which is now Safe Technology Limited. He was a founding member of the UK Ground Vehicle Instrumentation Group and a past Chairman. He is a founding member of the Engineering Integrity Society and served as its Chairman from 1990 until 2005. He has been an editor of several volumes of conference proceedings. In 2002 he was appointed an Honorary Visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. For the past 20 years he has been involved in the development and application of fatigue and durability analysis software for a wide range of industries. He has acted as a consultant to companies in many industries including automotive, ground vehicle, aerospace, medical equipment and power generation. His book 'Modern Metal Fatigue Analysis' was published by EMAS in 2008. He is the Chairman and CEO of Safe Technology Limited.
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, February 2010
fe-safe™ and ABAQUS combine to provide an accurate analysis of a stabilizer bar for Tubes Products of India Ltd, resulting in an optimised component and more than fifty percent reduction in development time.
Engineering solution provider from Bangalore, India, ProSIM R&D Private Limited (ProSIM R&D PVT Ltd) has used fe-safe™ and ABAQUS for the design verification and optimisation of a four wheeler automobile stabilizer bar for tier-1 vendor, Tubes Products of India. The study included an analysis of the effect of bending, shot peening and residual stress. The component is used in suspension systems of Indian automotive giant, Mahindra & Mahindra.
In the automobile industry in general, a combination of ABAQUS and fe-safe™ is used extensively to predict the fatigue life to crack initiation of components under operating service (duty cycle) loads.
Read the article in ABAQUS Insights
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, January 2010
Safe Technology is delighted to announce Professor Norman Dowling as the keynote speaker for the 5th fe-safe™ User Group Meeting, 2010
Prof Dowling is renowned in the field of fatigue theory and practice; in graduate education, in work at Westinghouse Research Laboratories and in teaching and research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, he has worked in the area of fatigue, fracture and deformation of engineering materials and components.
He has published numerous papers and reports in these areas and his respected book, Mechanical Behavior of Materials, has been widely adopted as an engineering textbook and is used extensively by practicing engineers. Professor Dowling is a member of the ASME Committee E8 on Fatigue and Fracture and of the SAE Fatigue Design and Evaluation Committee. In 1990 he received an ASTM Award of Merit and honorary title of Fellow of the ASTM. In 2009 he was awarded the endowed position of Frank Maher Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech.
Professor Dowling’s keynote presentation will address Mean Stress Effects in Stress-life and Strain-life Fatigue.
"I am honoured that Professor Dowling has agreed to speak at our 2010 User Group Meeting. I have always followed his prestigious work in the field with interest and am a great admirer of his papers and reference book." John Draper, CEO Safe Technology Ltd.
The fe-safe™ UGM is a highly respected event that brings together leading fatigue specialists and fe-saf™e users from around the world. We will be offering a valuable day of presentations from customers and Safe Technology’s specialist engineers, that educate and encourage designers and analysts to use modern fatigue analysis and design simulation methods in order to meet increasing industrial demands.
This year, the meeting will again offer a day of papers looking at fatigue analysis theory and the application of fe-safe™ across a broad range of industries, applications and research areas, with workshops on topics including: Vibration Fatigue; TMF; Weld fatigue and Verity® in fe-safe™; macro development and batch job coding; analysis of PSDs in fatigue analysis. These small group workshops are aimed at providing a more informal environment to stimulate discussion.
The User Group Meeting will be held at The Management Education Center, Michigan State University, Troy, Michigan on Wednesday 9th June, with a day of workshops following on Thursday 10th June.
For further information see the User Group Meeting 2010 page.
Register for these events using the Booking Form
If you would like to join a distinguished group of fatigue experts and present at this noteworthy event send your paper title or abstract to: Stephanie Wood
Press Release, Sheffield, UK, January 2010
Race car engineering specialists Pratt & Miller used a combination of software from Safe Technology Limited and its partner ANSYS to redesign a cracked brake pedal face. The team used ANSYS® engineering simulation products and fe-safe™ fatigue analysis technology to identify a solution that strengthened the critical part without excessive weight or compromising on race performance. The open architecture of ANSYS technology easily combined with the advanced fatigue analysis capabilities of fe-safe™, made the analysis process seamless, enabling Pratt & Miller to quickly identify an optimal redesign that met stringent fatigue life targets.
In world-class auto racing, mechanics often modify the car’s brake pedal face to comply with driver preference. Moving the pedal off center introduces a significant twisting moment — a situation that induces stresses and can lead to material fatigue. Pratt & Miller Engineering, a force in motorsports and high-level engineering, discovered that one of its race cars prematurely showed small cracks on the brake pedal faces. The crack started near the pivot pin, leading engineers to realize that mechanics were repositioning the pedal face. As the pedal face was moved further and further off center, the resulting twisting moment resulted in a high-stress location at the crack. “This critical component clearly needed to be redesigned. Simply over-engineering a part really is not an option in motorsports with weight such a vital consideration; we have to run very close to the limit on our parts because weight costs speed, lap times and ultimately the race. Simulation was key to the solution in this case," said Gary Latham, Design Office Manager, Pratt & Miller Engineering.
For the re-design, Pratt & Miller’s goal was to greatly increase the component’s fatigue life without compromising on race performance. The team compared various design alternatives within the ANSYS&reag; Workbench™ environment, then parameterized the pedal in a CAD package with the rib thickness and fillet size as variables. ANSYS software was instrumental in defining the lightest possible design without exceeding the material limits. The fe-safe™ fatigue analysis clearly showed where the component needed to be strengthened. fe-safe™ also determined how much the stresses must be changed and how much material must be added — and where — to achieve the target design life of over 1 million cycles. The new design is now in production and back on the race track.
“An adaptive software architecture is mandatory for today’s world of engineering design and development. Customers bring a variety of CAD, PLM, in-house codes and other point solutions to their overall development process,” said Dipankar Choudhury, Vice President of Corporate Product Strategy and Planning at ANSYS, Inc. “ANSYS software is intentionally open and flexible, designed so it can interoperate within the broader engineering simulation ecosystem. So ANSYS works with a number of partners, such as Safe Technology, to extend efficiency and functionality. Pratt & Miller leveraged this functionality, adapting it to achieve a winning solution.”