Next Generation Design for Auto Suppliers

Some of the typical parts that automotive suppliers make. Picture includes a piston, a bearing, and gears. Even with traditional parts like these, quality and time to market are critical differentiators.

The pace of innovation in the automotive supplier industry has never been greater. Suppliers face technological as well as economic challenges as the needs of their customers and the overall environment undergo radical shifts. Electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving, and lightweight construction are changing vehicles and the way that people interact with them. Suppliers must remain at the forefront of new technologies while keeping costs down and navigating an uncertain market.

The pace of innovation in the automotive supplier industry has never been greater. Suppliers face technological as well as economic challenges as the needs of their customers and the overall environment undergo radical shifts. Electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving, and lightweight construction are changing vehicles and the way that people interact with them. Suppliers must remain at the forefront of new technologies while keeping costs down and navigating an uncertain market.

An electric vehicle plugged in to a charger. Electric propulsion is one of the many ways that electrical and mechanical design are becoming more integrated for automotive suppliers.

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Increasing global competition is reducing time-to-market, driving the need to arrive at the best design early and ensure quality from the beginning. Designs must get lighter to meet future requirements, but strength and robustness must be maintained.

A convergence of technologies is opening up new possibilities in design. Only NX has true generative engineering with a comprehensive toolset. Those tools include Convergent Modeling, which allows you to work with optimized geometry (facet data) like any other data. Only NX offers topology optimization at the designer level, with no CAE expertise required.

The electrical and electronic content in cars is increasing exponentially. This creates new packaging challenges from things like batteries, high-voltage wiring, sensors, and infotainment systems. Disjointed mechanical and electrical design systems create issues with lost information, limited traceability, and visibility of the impact of changes.

NX delivers a holistic design approach that integrates the mechanical, electrical, and electronic disciplines and enables you to respond to changing demands quickly and easily, increasing confidence in product performance. A fully integrated 3D electrical harness routing application allows users to design and route harnesses in complex assemblies. With deep integration between NX & Capital, data can be shared in a live “connected” mode, which aids visualization. Design changes can be captured and reconciled. Features include live cross-probing between logical and harness and harness space reservation.

NX and Simcenter 3D combine to form an integrated modeling and simulation platform for the analysis of multi-domain systems. NX can simulate manufacturing and assembly processes to predict the amount and causes of variation. NX also addresses the challenges faced by mold, tool, and die designers with a fully integrated solution. Finally, NX offers a robust set of Design for Manufacturing (DfM) tools.

An electric vehicle plugged in to a charger. Electric propulsion is one of the many ways that electrical and mechanical design are becoming more integrated for automotive suppliers.