Editor’s Pick: One Tool Simulates Transmissions

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

So, some 20 odd years ago I cleverly bought at half its new price a year-old minivan with just 10k on it from my bub Doug at the dealer. Nothing like a cherry-red minivan to strut your biological success, I always say. A month later, the transmission went out. That thing’s death yowls were so loud that other motorists mercifully let us pass as Norma and I bucked toward the dealership repair yard. Glad old Norma came with the original warranty. Got a free transmission. Eventually.

That was back in the days when physical prototypes were pretty much the only way transmission designs could be tested reliably. Things have changed with virtual prototyping. And when it comes to testing virtual prototypes of transmission designs, things have just changed again. MSC.Software recently released the Adams Gear Advanced Technology plug-in for its MD (multidiscipline) Adams mechanical systems analysis software. This sounds really interesting.

Those of you in the loop know that MD (multidiscipline) Adams is widely leveraged because of its ability to integrate mechanical components like hydraulics and control systems into virtual prototypes that you use to make sure that these subsystems work in harmony. The Adams Gear Advanced Technology toolkit sounds loaded with transmission-specific methodologies. But what is cool is that it creates a gear simulation environment for the entire transmission design process. By “entire” they mean gears, bearings, gear contact, displacements,  and what have you. This all means that you can find and fix rattles and optimize complex interactions as well as component behaviors.

The trick here is that Adams Gear Advanced Technology lets you work with both static design studies as well fully transient dynamics studies. That means you can take the same model from your static analyses and perform dynamic studies of your transmission, transmission components, and even the full system throughout your design process.

You can learn more about MSC.Software’s Adams Gear Advanced Technology solution from today’s Pick of the Week write-up. I’m afraid that it’s kind of slim pickings’ on links to this add-in toolkit directly. I guess because of the holidays. But I did find a lot of interesting stuff on Adams that you might enjoy — a couple of good case studies and webinars of reasonable length in particular.

Thanks, pal. — Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today’s Pick of the Week write-up.

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