SIMUFACT WELDING

CAE tool for Manufacturing Metalworking Industry

OVERVIEW

This video gives a brief introduction into welding simulation in joining and assembly with Simufact Welding. First part introduces the aims of Simufact Welding and in the second part offers insights into the practical side of Simufact Welding with different examples.

 

Simufact Welding is used to model and calculate a wide range of thermal joining processes by means of the welding structure simulation under consideration of weld sequence and clamping.

Processes such as arc welding, laser beam welding, electron beam welding, brazing as well as resistance spot welding can be modeled in Simufact Welding. A new field of application is the simulation of deposition welding and modeling of the generative manufacturing process ‘Direct Energy Deposition’ (DED).

In addition, Simufact Welding can be used to model the heat treatment, different variants for cooling and unclamping as well as the mechanical load on welded structures. Simufact Welding uses a scalable calculation approach with which the calculation speed and accuracy can be controlled as required.

Simufact Welding predicts distortions and residual stresses by virtually try-outs and helps the user to determine appropriate strategies to minimize them. It is the only simulation software which automatically considers the complex contact situation between the components, which in turn allows conclusions about the properties of the weld seam, in particular its strength, to be drawn.

Simufact Welding achieves this by calculating the microstructural properties within the heat-affected zone, which also gives the user a valuable insight into identifying welding defects, such as hot cracks in the simulation, and how to avoid them in practice.

Simufact Welding assists in finding the optimal clamping devices based on the implementation of real tool geometries, while considering clamping forces and stiffness. Besides the clamping concepts, also the suitable welding sequences can be identified with Simufact Welding.

The software predicts the final contour of the assembly and helps to achieve serial production with minimum tolerances. A new visualization concept ensures that the entire welding process, with all its process steps, can be reviewed immediately, influencing factors can be visualized and different variants are comparable at a single glance.

Further welding processes can be simulated with Simufact Welding such as resistance spot welding (RSW), direct energy deposition (DED) as well as dedicated modules for stress relief heat treatment and cooling and clamping processes for the investigation of further subsequent processes after the actual welding process.

 

SIMUFACT WELDING - CAPABILITIES

 

  • Direct Energy Deposition (DED) – New Module for Simufact Welding

  • G-Code Import for Welding Processes

  • Pre-Processing improvements by implementing, among others, Leblond Model and scripting

  • Enhancements in the post-processing such as MPCCI-Mapper or filter options

  • Calculate resistance spot welding process quickly with several robots

 

BENEFITS

Do you have trouble with critical welding distortions? Do you have trouble with welding stresses? Do you want to identify the best welding sequence?

  1. Identify critical distortions, i.e. with respect to assembly, bulging, imbalances, and clearances

  2. Investigate and optimize clamping tools even before an investment in tools has been made

  3. Identify optimal welding directions and welding sequences

  4. Investigate the influence of unclamping on welding distortions and residual stresses

  5. Gain knowledge about the development of the heat affected zone

  6. Use a tool which supports you during planning of welding processes

  7. Innovate your process design: - virtually test and evaluate different variables without and avoid extremely expensive real tryouts - examine the material behavior during the welding process

  8. Verify the quality of welding seams, i.e. by calculating nugget sizes, brittle metallurgical phases, hardness, and effects of preheating

 
 

HIGHLIGHTS

 
 

Direct Energy Deposition (DED) – New Module for Simufact Welding

With the release of Simufact Welding 2020 users will now be able to simulate Direct Energy Deposition (DED) processes. This new module inside Simufact Welding 2020 helps the user quickly and efficiently setup robust DED models in order to calculate and evaluate for stress, strain, distortion, thermal history, and hot spots during manufacturing and post processing. The DED models utilize common robot programming such as the G-Code which allows the user to simply import existing tool paths instead of defining weld paths manually

 

G-Code Import for Welding Processes

With the latest release of Simufact Welding 2020, the user is enabled to work with the robot programming code, the G-Code. With this function, the software can easily process complex welding sequences that were difficult to implement manually.

Many types of G-Codes can be processed automatically and translated into welding trajectories inside the model. Furthermore, it will be possible to identify and automatically process velocities of the robots as well as the information of the welding heat source. These data can be used for definition of weld paths and heat source properties.

 

Pre-Processing improvements by implementing, among others, Leblond Model and Scripting

One of the most important highlights of the latest version is the implementation of the Leblond phase transformation model which is implemented in the solver and material GUI.

The implementation allows processing of CCT data and converts it into model parameters. This allows user-defined transformation kinetics for steels.

Another highlight is the newly implemented scripting functionality based on Python that helps to script and automatize recurring activities. This is a great benefit if several variants of a model are to be set up with e. g. different welding sequences or clamping conditions. This saves the user a lot of time and effort in generating each individual variant manually.

Additionally, Simufact Welding 2020 offers enhancements especially for large-sized models by improving the performance of the 3D view as well as the GUI performance. Thus, setting up a model is significantly faster and streamlines the workflow.

 

Enhancements in the post-processing such as MpCCI-Mapper or filter options

An interface was added to exchange simulation results like deformations and stresses to and from the MpCCI-Mapper. This makes data exchange between Simufact Welding 2020 and third-party products such as Abaqus, LS-Dyna and various other programs possible.

Another feature of the latest version is the enhanced evaluation functionality of the results. The user is now able to filter different results which allows a more qualified evaluation of the process with respect to the simulation results.

The filter is also able to extract or highlight selected elements or nodes in the 3D representation of the model. During model debugging and understanding, it helps to detect several critical locations that might have occurred during the calculation process.

Finally, a new convergence monitor helps to track the solving performance of the model and to identify possible improvements in terms of calculation time and result quality.

 

Calculate quickly resistance spot welding process with several robots

Simplified approaches enable user to calculate large resistance welding processes with several robots welding at the same time. Take advantage of Simufact Welding 2020 to quickly achieve needed results in terms of distortions, stresses and temperature fields.

Additionally, the possibility to use the thermal cycle approach for more than two sheets inside the weld spot is added. This provides more flexibility to the simplified modelling approach and avoids the need to use the transient solution with higher computational effort if more than two sheets are involved.