Troy Firm's Software At Work In New Aircraft Seating

The Troy software and tech services firm Altair Engineering Inc. announced that Contour Premium Aircraft Seating has successfully applied Altair's HyperWorks enterprise simulation suite to deliver new products.

Contour takes full advantage of the HyperWorks computer aided engineering suite, including HyperMesh and HyperView for finite element pre- and post-processing, OptiStruct for structural optimization, and MotionView and MotionSolve for multi-body dynamics simulation.

HyperWorks has helped enable the company to create innovative, lightweight seating for aircraft carrier customers allowing them to stay ahead of their competitors in a highly competitive market.

"Having prior career experience with HyperWorks, when I moved to Contour to help improve their finite element analysis capabilities, it was a natural choice to recommend the CAE suite," said Huw Jones, senior stress engineer for Contour Premium Aircraft Seating. "We started off using HyperMesh for pre-processing tasks. After realizing the model building efficiencies gained from the software, we expanded its use considerably. HyperMesh is the quickest and most flexible FE pre-processor that we've ever used; in fact one of our engineers who had over 10 years experience with an alternate solution was able to complete model creation tasks significantly quicker in HyperMesh and that's including the training period."

The volatile nature of fuel prices has forced the aerospace industry to make weight a high priority focus. With every kilogram of weight contributing to the running costs of an aircraft to the carrier, minimizing weight throughout Contour's product line is vital to their position as a value-added, preferred aircraft seating supplier. HyperWorks' optimization technology has been deployed by Contour to meet these challenges and enhance their development process.

"The weight reduction exercise for first class seating we deal with can be extremely challenging due to the integration of numerous items of equipment that ensures a premium and comfortable seating environment," Jones said. "To deal with these issues more efficiently we adopted the HyperWorks optimization technology, in particular OptiStruct, for all topology and gauge optimization projects. We use the technology on component level sub-models to reduce the overall seating system weight, and by using OptiStruct we can ensure the optimized design solution suits all load cases. The combination of pre- and post-processing, optimization and multi-body dynamics solutions within HyperWorks, has also allowed us to significantly reduce our physical testing during the certification process and perform more design iterations. The cost of a single first class or business class seat is very significant so minimizing the need to physically build and crash test the products is vital. Virtual design technology allows us to cut this cost significantly with the initial investment for HyperWorks having already paid for itself."

Altair UK managing director David Mason said Contour's HyperWorks deployment "has ensured that each passenger aircraft seating solution the company provides is first class and meets or even exceeds the requirements of their customers. The focus on fuel and energy saving within the aerospace market has forced suppliers to make optimization a core part of the development cycle and HyperWorks has proven to be the tool to deliver."

More at www.altairhyperworks.com or www.contour.aero.

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