Simufact.welding is on the shortlist for the EuroBLECH Award – category joining. The welding simulation software released by Simufact Engineering has been nominated as one of the three most innovative exhibits’. The EuroBLECH Award, at the international technology trade fair for sheet metal forming, has been awarded by the specialized media blechnet and MM MaschinenMarkt, both publications of Vogel publishing, this year in six categories.
At the ceremony last Tuesday, Simufact was pleased to have received the award along with the also for joining technology nominated and later award winner Grenzebach Maschinenbau, and Fronius Deutschland.
“Even though we didn’t end up winning the award, the nomination and making the shortlist are a great achievement for our company“, said Michael Wohlmuth, managing director and CEO of Simufact. “We are convinced that with Simufact.welding we have developed a software product that will prevail in the manufacturing industry. The simulation of welding processes is a method, which can answer important questions relating to the industrial use and the optimization of welding processes.”
When it comes to industrial welding there are a number of recurring issues, to which the answers often require significant efforts: dents and bumps – which are also unsightly – are instable and can jump back and forth audibly. Welded components can no longer be joined or are leaking. Rotating welded components are unbalanced. The minimization of welding distortions in trials or rather the subsequent adjustment is expensive and time- consuming.
Simufact.welding is from the ground up newly developed simulation software following the specifications of a task force of the German automobile industry. Fast, precise and robust calculations combined with an innovative, user-friendly and suitable for daily use concept are to allow engineers and technicians from production to handle their welding tasks with the software.
After an eight year development period, Simufact’s new version 4 comes very close to the demands of the manufacturing industry: an efficient and comfortable model design, consideration of special welding-specific boundary conditions, adjustable meshing and re-meshing, a material data bank with complete data sets for all welding relevant material classes, practical and application-oriented handling and pre-settings.
Simufact.welding is particularly high performance Finite-Element-based software, which allows the realistic prediction of distortions and internal stresses, while considering material changes during welding, and determines strategies to minimize them. Simufact.welding is the only simulation software which automatically considers the complex contact situation between the components. Simufact.welding calculates the microstructural properties in the heat-affected zone; their form allows conclusions about the properties of the weld seam, in particular its strength. The user gains valuable insights to identify welding defects such as hot cracks in the simulation, and to avoid them in the practice.
Unlike regular calculation software, our software assists in finding the optimal clamping devices based on the implementation of real tool geometry, while considering clamping forces and clamping stiffness. In addition to the clamping concepts, the suitable welding sequences can be identified with Simufact.welding. The Software predicts the final contour of the component and helps to manufacture components with precise tolerances in series. A new visualization concept ensures that the entire welding process, with all its process cycles, can be reviewed in an overview, influencing factors can be visualized and different variants are comparable at a single glance.
After researching universities were primarily among the first users, the software has now gained the functional maturity to make the productive application in the tough industrial practice possible. The first industrial customers have completed the early stages of researching, experimenting and testing and are now taking serious steps towards the productive application of welding simulation software.
