e-Xstream engineering Accelerates Pace of Engineering Innovation

To develop and build highly complex products like lightweight aircraft and ultra-quiet electric vehicles effectively, there’s an imperative to lean on advanced simulation and multiscale modeling technology.

The problem has been much of that advanced engineering technology has been the domain of academia and research labs, not necessarily of commercial engineering and manufacturing organizations. e-Xstream engineering, part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence Division, is hoping to change the dynamic with its 10X ICME solution that combines cutting-edge academic research with commercial digital technology and metrology to help aerospace, automotive, and makers of other complex industrial products accelerate innovation, improve quality, and most importantly, perfect design strategies to reduce waste.

10X ICME, which bundles and brands the combined-companies’ highly sophisticated simulation and multiscale modeling tools, should be viewed less as a product and more of an approach centered around Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) practices. The latter is an engineering methodology that integrates design, engineering, and testing to zero in on the optimal combination of materials and manufacturing processes at the onset of development to ensure accelerated delivery of ground-breaking products such as new electric vehicles or aircraft sporting lightweight blended wings build on composite technology.

“ICME is not a product, it’s an approach which is fast becoming a trend because it puts material at the center of product development and engineering,” says Roger Assaker, CEO of e-Xstream engineering. “Due to the knowledge and compute power we have today, ICME enables more optimal engineering of products than before based on multiscale modeling technology that lets you examine products and materials at a different scale.”

Consider the methodology, which e-Xstream claims has been commercialized for the first time with its 10X ICME platform, used to optimize the design and manufacturing of composite microstructures from the onset of building a lightweight aircraft wing, Assaker explains. Due to the complexity of materials and how they are manufactured, composites have been a black box and are often compensated from a design standpoint to address safety factors. “At the end of the day, they are overdesigned and over costed because engineers compensate for safety factors,” he says. “Instead of eight layers, they put in 20 layers, which makes the product more expensive and heavier. They ignore the underlying physics.”

10X ICME relies on virtual material developing and testing, virtual manufacturing practices, and material-centric digital twins to determine the best combination of materials and manufacturing methods (for example, using injection molding or 3D printing) and to simulate manufacturing and materials to reduce reliance on real-world prototyping. The digital integration of end-to-end manufacturing lines and supply chains help predict final product performance and allows for data-driven customization throughout the process, Assaker says.

There are 10 pillars within the 10X ICME solution, each addressed through different technologies from the e-Xstream engineering, Hexagon, and MSC ecosystem. The pillars cover virtual material development and testing, material lifecycle management, compliance, material modeling and performance, virtual manufacturing, and the digital twin. Manufacturers can choose the pillars most relevant to their methods and pain points and expand accordingly as they see fit, Assaker says. “Think of it as a menu of value customers can choose depending on their business drivers at any point in time,” he says.

Watch this video to learn more about ICME concepts and how 10X ICME makes it accessible to mainstream engineering organizations.