MSC Software plans to increase supplier base in India
The US-based MSC Software, a simulation software product provider for automotive industry perceives huge prospects with Indian automotive industry and plans to increase its supplier base in the country. The company helps the customers (Tier companies and OEMs) to optimise their designs using virtual prototypes. This improves quality, saves time and reduces costs associated with design and test of manufactured products.
Sridhara Dharmarajan, Senior Director-India, ASEAN & ANZ, MSC Software said, “We are an established simulation solution provider and our product is used by 90% of OEMs across the globe and in India. But increasing the supplier base is our target in India. With the emission norms being tightened, the avenues are promising for us. We are striding to hit the BS VI emission norms by 2020 and it is at par with Euro VI norms. To abide by the same a lot of technical inputs will go inside the component and the layout has to be optimised. But in India, the same solutions could be provided at a cheaper rate than in Europe. Suppliers across the globe will start investing in the Indian market. This is the zone we need to work out and code the simulation solutions bespoke to the suppliers.”
He said that 100’s and 1000’s of simulations will be put to test in every component and the resulting calculation helps in designing the optimisation. The cost of the product provided by the company gets differentiated with the supplier’s needs. The OEMs need the simulation for the entire vehicle which is not the case with the component suppliers.
To increase the supplier base in India, the company conducts a lot of events. Recently the events were conducted in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad. “We are able to provide e-learning solutions to our customers and they could access that and learn
anytime. Also we have special package of solutions for the suppliers and we could personally train them,” Dharmarajan said.
The company provides to the automotive industry variety of solutions like strength analysis, acoustic aspects and comfort assurance. For an instance the exhaust system will break either due to structural deformity or thermal issues. Through the company’s simulations exact shape could be arrived at in manufacturing by replicating the designing dimensions. It ensures that there is no distortion, and the exhaust gas flow is at a determined level to avoid excess heat generation which results in deformation. “We are able to give simulation solutions for all the components. Hitherto we have not touched upon the electromagnetic (High frequency) simulation which experiments the IC chips in the cars. This simulation has not so far come under the purview but keeping this aside we have solutions for all other things,” he said.
The company has forging solutions from mechanical perspective. Its products will help the engine manufacturers design the component in a better way and check the tolerance limit when high pressure is applied on the piston. The component design change and the material ratio could be decided based on the simulation results. Infrastructure plays a pivotal role and the performance of the vehicle is connected with the same. Fatigue calculation provided by the company’s simulation product helps the OEMs and the suppliers to arrive at the endurance needs. The company has tied up with ARAI to obtain the road data. The database covers the highways and country roads. “Frame is the primary part to feel the road conditions and our diagnostic solutions educate the manufactures well in this area. With the knowledge acquired by our simulation solutions the frame design is done by CAD Software. The materials and the design are optimised to sustain the road conditions and the simulation process is repeated until the desired results. It is equally important to make the frame as light as possible depending on whether it is a car or truck to strike a balance between sustenance and fuel efficiency,” Dharmarajan said.
Multidisciplinary Optimisation (MO) is the trend-setter in simulation techniques. MO will take its role everywhere in the component from the selection of the material, design, structural analysis, thermal analysis, load bearing capacity and finally retrieve the most effective component model. The simulation provider works on the same with respect to every component. In order to derive inputs for the same, the company convenes ‘customer advisory board’ meeting with 15 top customers frequently. The product heads of all the companies give an insight of this and these inputs will help the company to set standards in delivering the product.
“We had a spectacular growth in the past decade. We have grown 10 times and with the knowhow of the market our solutions will be at par with the industry standards. We await response from the customers. The growth is directly proportionate to R&D and we expect a positive tick in India with the stage set for new regulations,” Dharmarajan said.