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Liebherr takes customers to new heights –
with CoCreate
"Our designers have to load large quantities of data, sometimes with challenging geometries and freeform surfaces, and sometimes within the corresponding environment, to check for collisions — 5000 components or more are not unusual. But it’s no problem with our CAD environment."
Karl-Heinz Kramer, Manager of Technical IT at Liebherr
The Complete Story
Featured CoCreate Solutions
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Today’s mobile lifting devices are extremely high-tech machines that strive to use the lightest weight vehicles with the fewest axles to lift the biggest loads imaginable. For example, 10 years ago, equipment in the 200-metric ton load category sat on 8 axles. Today, a type LTM 1220-5.2 mobile crane with just 5 axles can lift 220 metric tons. That’s because new types of steel and welding technologies, coupled with better construction methods, have narrowed sheet metal thicknesses and optimized distribution of forces. But these sleeker cranes also come from smart engineering — precise knowledge of the crane’s load response, particularly in extreme situations, is imperative.
The customer is always right
Great equipment isn’t just well engineered, it also
meets customer needs. And those needs change from
customer to customer and sometimes from day to day. That
means those who construct the cranes must respond
quickly, sometimes in the middle of production. For
example, a crane on a construction site may need to lift
more than originally planned, leading to changes in the
ballast load. This in turn may mean reinforcing the
steel structure With new sheet metal components
added, and others removed.
Those kinds of changes in production start in design.
Companies using traditional history-based CAD systems
can expect considerable extra work to adapt the design,
because it takes a long time to navigate through the
software’s history tree to modify the design.
Market leader, Liebherr, uses CoCreate OneSpace
Modeling, in part because of the flexibility that comes
with history-free design.
The CoCreate Suite
With 130 3D CAD licenses, the company also uses add-ons Sheet Metal and FE Analysis for OneSpace Modeling.
Plus, Liebherr keeps track of all its design data with
the CoCreate data management solution — which connects to
its ERP system.
That means that the CAD system provides technical data
such as weight details or dimensions directly into the
ERP, making, hand-entered data (and the associated
errors) obsolete.
Another strength of the 3D CAD system is the ease with
which large assemblies can be handled. "Our designers
check for collisions by loading large quantities of
data, sometimes with challenging geometries and freeform
surfaces, and sometimes within the corresponding
environment," says Karl-Heinz Kramer. "Assemblies of
5000 components or more are not unusual. But it’s no
problem with our CAD environment."
Consistent processes
The innovative digital process chain "Sheet" now runs
from design to production with Sheet Metal in 3D. The
final measurements for geometries and other information
from Sheet Metal flow directly into production. A
bending simulation uses machine data for the machine
base and the punching tools to verify that the sheet
metal design can actually be produced. The company uses
the same consistent 3D process for tube construction.
Data transfer with partners
Teams frequently use models created in other software
applications for design. 3D models created by the engine
development team at the Bulle plant or CATIA-V4 data
from external engineering work easily import into
OneSpace Modeling thanks to the CoCreate data adapter.
Check that it works
Before a design leave the building, it requires
testing. With FE Analysis for OneSpace Modeling,
designers perform structural analysis on
non-safety-relevant parts. Assessment experts evaluate
the overall structural stability of the vehicles using Ansys.
To transfer data between design and assessment, Liebherr
uses STEP and the direct interface between OneSpace
Modeling and Ansys Workbench.
In addition, Stress analysts use compressed geometry
data for pre-processing.
The company organizes the design/assessment iterations
so that only the new geometry updates when design changes
occur. Boundary values are adopted from the previous
evaluation run.
The perfect process
The Liebherr plant in Ehingen long ago nailed a
perfect 2D process chain from design through to
production. And today the company aims to do the same in
3D, without design drawings. Plus, they’ve expanded
their infrastructure with a Web-based portal solution.
This provides quick and regulated access to different
data sources. It also allows occasional users and
suppliers — with the right authorizations — to access
all the required information.
Company Profile
Liebherr is well-established global company in the world
of structural and civil engineering. The company splits
the development and production of its products and
components among
29 locations in 12 countries on 4 continents. The
contemplative Swabian town of Ehingen houses the mobile
crane product division, where more than 1200 cranes
leave its production halls every year. The company leads
the industry with a market share of around 42%.
For more information, please visit: www.liebherr.com.
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