Siemens launches new version of NX to enhance sustainability in product design
- New NX version helps users to assess environmental impact at the product development stage
- Design-oriented front-end simulation makes full use of the GPU to gain near real-time design insights
Siemens Digital Industrial Software has launched an updated version of its NX™ product engineering solution. As the flagship product in Siemens' Xcelerator solutions portfolio, NX software supports design, engineering and manufacturing in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive and FMCG.
This update to Siemens NX focuses on product sustainability," said Dr Ken Versprille, Executive Consultant, CIMdata. The complete workflow not only helps manufacturing companies meet the challenges posed by product complexity and continuous optimisation, but also provides a range of new intelligent tools geared towards sustainability, helping manufacturing companies to meet functional requirements while reducing their environmental impact."
Sustainability is a key concern across all industries today, with more than 80% of the environmental impact associated with a product dependent on the product design stage. The combination of accurate 3D design data and an AI-driven material recommendation engine delivers sustainability indicators based on EN15804. Companies can calculate, evaluate and optimise the impact of design decisions and material selection based on a dataset of more than 30 environmental impacts and a 3D design sustainability report.
The Siemens Xcelerator solution portfolio offers the ability to integrate and connect to a wider corporate network, allowing the same data to be reused downstream, and Siemens Teamcenter® product lifecycle management software extracts environmental objectives and requirements, helping companies to validate designs against relevant requirements and environmental credits.
Helping simulation to "move left"
As system complexity increases and design resources decrease, simulation during the design process is gaining more traction. To take full advantage of simulation capabilities early in the design process, Siemens has added Performance Predictor to the new NX version, which delivers real-time simulation results in its main design tool by using graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware. With the application of boundary and load conditions and specific materials, parts can be simulated in real time and the simulation results can be overlaid directly onto the 3D model.
The technology can also be used for parametric-driven studies, where the NX Design Space Explorer solution can be used to define and solve multi-parameter, goal-based optimisation studies, dramatically reducing time and allowing such simulation data to be reused and expanded in the Simcenter™ software product once defined to perform more advanced simulations as the project progresses.
Speeding up moulded part design
With the molded parts market expected to expand from $520 billion in 2020 to $750 billion by 2028, manufacturing companies are seeking to reduce design iterations, eliminate costly physical prototypes, and eliminate the trial-and-error process for molded part design.
With the new Molded Part Designer feature in NX, designers can create, manage, and validate molded part design features such as hubs, brackets, clips, and openings/notches using 3D design data in the native NX environment. Whether features are created based on best practices or imported from third-party suppliers, NX Molded Part Designer validates them all, performs plasticity analysis, and presents the results on a visual dashboard to evaluate design feasibility and design options in different scenarios.
When used in conjunction with NX Sustainability Impact Analysis, this ensures that materials not only meet functional and manufacturability requirements, but also environmental requirements.
Tool management in the cloud
Standardising the tools used in CNC manufacturing operations not only helps companies to reduce tooling costs, but also facilitates the sharing of best practices between geographically dispersed manufacturing teams. New to NX CAM is the Cloud Tool Manager solution, which uses modern web technology to help companies easily manage tools and tool holders centrally. It also supports the import of tool data directly from the tool supplier's catalogue, speeding up NC programming and enabling manufacturing companies to take full advantage of the latest advances in tooling.
