Alcoa handles stress with COSMOSDesignSTAR

Company Alcoa Packaging Equipment Industry Machinery Location U.S.A. Product Used COSMOSDesignSTAR™ Type of Analysis Linear Static More Details

The Challenge

Alcoa Packaging Equipment, a division of Alcoa, is the world's leading producer of aluminum. Alcoa was in need of a new CAD system that was affordable and precise.

"The main reason we went to a new CAD system is that Solid Edge gives us the tools we need, and only the tools we need," explains Paul Choate, engineering manager of Alcoa Packaging Machinery (APM), a unit within Alcoa Packaging Equipment. "Our previous systems had a lot of functionality that we didn't use and we couldn't justify the extra expense." Choate estimates that his group paid approximately $20,000 per seat for the high-end CAD software and spent about $3,000 per seat in annual maintenance fees.

Solid Edge's per-seat acquisition costs were less than 25% of the high-end system's. And the savings in using Solid Edge led for the ability to purchase other important tools needed in designing, such as Finite Element Analysis and Kinematics Analysis. Choosing a reliable CAD system with robust design analysis tools has not only saved Alcoa money, but has provided both design and analysis capabilities.

The Solution
Alcoa Packaging Equipment has installed 50 seats of Solid Edge at facilities in Colorado, New York, and Germany. Alcoa also uses COSMOSDesignSTAR from Structural Research & Analysis Corp. for finite element analysis (FEA) and Working Model Motion, a kinematics and dynamics software package from MSC Working Knowledge. As Voyager Partners, both COSMOSDesignSTAR and Working Model Motion provide a smooth integration between design geometry and downstream applications.

With these programs, Alcoa has created an affordable, Windows NT-based development environment that permits not only the design but also the optimization of machines that produce aluminum cans. "Because our machines operate at such high speeds, we really have to pay attention to weight," says Choate. "With the system we have now, we easily go back and forth between design, FEA, and dynamic analysis to remove excess weight from critical parts.

Summary and Metrics:

• Parts such as shafts and brackets were analyzed to ensure that they could withstand the required loads
• Stress analysis results were used to guide designers in removing excess weight