FEA allows you to test the strength of your product before you build the real thing. It helps you make intelligent decisions.
FEA is a good idea if you want to...
- Increase your chances of designing a product that will do it's job without failure.
- Minimise the cost of getting the product right before it goes into full scale production.
- Prove compliance with Standards.
FEA Is a decision making tool
- FEA gives you the chance to test different design options.
- It's just quicker, easier and cheaper than building different designs and testing them.
- FEA gives you the confidence to know that your product will serve its intended purpose
Don't get caught out!
It's worth remembering the rule of adding zeros...it may cost $100 to change it before the prototype phase, a $1,000 after prototype, $10,000 in the tooling phase, and $100,000 after it is in full production.
Your numbers will be different, but the principal will still be the same. Design changes cost more the further you go through the product development process.
FEA can help answer these questions:
- Where will it break first?
- How do loads travel through the structure?
- How could we make it stronger?
- Where can we take out weight?
- Does it comply with Standards?
FEA can test different types of loads such as:
- Pressure / Force Loads
- Torque / Twisting Loads
- Gravitational / Mass Loads
- Shock / Vibration Loads
- Thermal / Temperature Loads
FEA can deliver results such as:
- Max working load (Yield)
- Cyclic fatigue (Stress)
- Resonant frequencies (Vibration)
- Deflection (Deformation)
