OSRAM SYLVANIA USES ALGOR TO ENSURE AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING COMPONENT SAFETY

Charlie Coushaine at Osram Sylvania used Algor's Merlin Meshing Technology and Superdraw III to interface his CAD system with Algor's Heat Transfer Analysis Software for the light bulb component design shown here.

April 8, 1998, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Osram Sylvania's automotive lighting components are activated countless times every day as drivers signal lane changes and passengers open doors. The Hillsboro, New Hampshire, company ensures the safety of its original and replacement products by using the mechanical engineering software of Algor, Inc.

Charlie Coushaine, an Osram Sylvania engineer, used Algor software recently to reduce the heat that passes from a light bulb through a metal component to the plastic lighting base. For each trial design, Mr. Coushaine used Algor's Superdraw III to interface with his computer-aided design (CAD) system. He then leveraged Algor's Heat Transfer Analysis capabilities to determine how hot the lighting component would become.

Superdraw III, Algor's precision finite element model-building tool, contains all the features needed to draw a model, add an automatic mesh, apply FEA objects and set up Mechanical Event Simulations. It offers the following benefits for FEA users:

• Provides a CAD-like interface for ease-of-use
• Imports CAD IGES and DXF files and existing Algor FEA models
• Has built-in automatic meshing capabilities
• Works with Algor’s advanced automatic mesh engines, including Supergen, Supersurf, Hypergen, Hexagen and Merlin Meshing Technology
• Enables you to use multiple meshing techniques on the same model so you can refine one area of the mesh without re-meshing the entire model
• Provides a solid view, which makes it easier to select surface nodes, check the geometry for holes and inadequacies and add loads to specific nodes
• Lets you model with beam/truss, plate/shell, tetrahedral and brick elements all in the same user interface

In the case of the lighting component, Mr. Coushaine used Superdraw III's mesh generation and FEA object application functions as well as its CAD interfacing capabilities. "Once I have a design in the CAD system, I simply apply a mesh using Algor's finite element meshing tools (Merlin Meshing Technology and Hexagen) and apply loads and boundary conditions in Superdraw III," explained Mr. Coushaine.

"The process of meshing and preparing a CAD model for Algor analysis is so quick that I can maintain my geometry in the CAD system and bring each design iteration over to Algor for analysis," said Mr. Coushaine. "I rarely have a need to further improve the mesh Algor automatically generates."

Mr. Coushaine appreciates Superdraw III's easy-to-use interface as well as its automatic meshing capabilities. "The Superdraw III toolbars are really excellent," said Mr. Coushaine. "I use the viewing tools most frequently to zoom into areas of interest. Having the selection tools accessible from the toolbar is also very helpful."