There is much going on in the world of hydraulic, pneumatic and electric motion systems, from technology introductions and industry advancements to new trends and industry leaders. Each week the Power & Motion team collects the latest industry news to help keep our readers up to date on what's happening in the fluid power and electric motion control sectors as well as the industries they serve.
Concentric AB Names New SVP of Hydraulics Division
Concentric AB recently announced Dr. Roger Ingemey as the company's new Senior Vice President Hydraulics Division. According to the company, his appointement is in line with the growth plans for Concentric's hydraulics division and electrification strategy.
Ingemey has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Duisburg-Essen.
"Roger brings a wealth of international leadership experience with a focus on adopting practices of continuous improvement, driving profitable and sustainable growth and implementing leadership development initiatives. With a track record of achieving commercial and operational excellence, Roger will be a key member of the Group Senior Leadership Team," said Martin Kunz, President and CEO of Concentric AB, in the company's press release announcing Ingemey's new role.
Schaeffler Joins Industry Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing
Schaeffler has joined the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) as a Tier 1 member of its industry consortium to accelerate translational research for advanced manufacturing.
The company said in its press release announcing the partnership that joining ARTC will help accelerate the deployment of advanced manufacturing technologies and new production concepts, in particular additive manufacturing industrialization and robotics at Schaeffler's production sites globally.
Schaeffler will work together with ARTC on projects related to additive manufacturing (also referred to as 3D printing) and robotics which includes development of new production concepts and technologies to help advance these industry solutions further.
ARTC is part of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore and creates public-private partnerships to overcome technological gaps in adopting advanced manufacturing and remanufacturing processes. By doing so, it looks to accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies to help advance the manufacturing industry to be more sustainable, efficient and productive.
"Schaeffler has a high level of competence in industrialization and decades of know-how in production technologies. The partnership provides a unique opportunity to accelerate innovations in our production processes and sites. This takes us a significant step forward in shaping next level operations," said Andreas Schick, Chief Operating Officer, Schaeffler AG, who signed the membership agreement on behalf of the company.
READ MORE: Additive Manufacturing Brings Opportunities to Improve Component Design and Production
BorgWarner Forms Joint Venture for Commercial Vehicle Electrification Solutions
BorgWarner announces the formation of a joint venture with Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Group, a China-based commercial vehicle (CV) parts supplier specializing in transmission and drivetrain systems. The joint venture will help expand BorgWarner's portfolio of battery-electric and hybrid solutions for the CV market.
The companies plan to collaborate on a high-voltage inverter application for high-efficiency on- and off-highway vehicles said Stefan Demmerle, President and General Manager, BorgWarner PowerDrive Systems, in the company's press release announcing the joint venture. Collaborating with Shaanxi will not only increase BorgWarner's product offering for electrified CVs but also its business in the Chinese market.
The company said in its press release that it sees this partnership helping accelerate the growth of electrification in the commercial vehicle space — a segment which is adapting hybrid- and full-electric technologies at a fast rate.
Ansys Launches AI-Based Simulation Tool
Ansys has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-based simulation software called SimAI. The company describes it as a physics-agnostic, software as a service (SaaS) application which combines the predictive accuracy of Ansys simulation with the speed of generative AI.
By including AI in its simulation software, Ansys aims to help make research and development, product development cycles and design iterations faster for customers. The ease of use provided by the software will also help with this.
As the company explained in its press release announcing the software's launch, users do not need coding experience, deep learing expertise or to rely on geometric parameters to define a design. Instead, Ansys SimAI uses the shape of a design itself as the input, facilitating broader design exploration even if the structure of the shape is inconsistent across the training data the company said.
Ansys said the application can boost prediction of model performance across all design phases by 10-100X for computation-heavy projects and customers can train the AI using previously generated data.
"With Ansys SimAI, we will be able to easily test a design within minutes and rapidly analyze the results, ultimately redefining our digital engineering workflow and reshaping our perception of what is possible," said William Becamel, expert leader in numerical modelling and simulation, Renault Group. "By enhancing simulation speed, we can explore more technical possibilities during the upstream phase of our projects and reduce the overall time-to-market."
Caterpillar Signs Agreement to Test Electric Off-Highway Trucks
Caterpillar Inc. has signed an electrification strategic agreement with CRH, an aggregates producer based in North America. As part of this agreement, CRH will help test and validate Caterpillar's battery electric off-highway trucks and charging solutions.
Using the electric trucks at CRH sites will help provide real-world testing of the vehicles to demonstrate their capabilities in this heavy-duty application as well as provide valuable feedback for potential design updates.
“We are pleased to work with CRH, as our first aggregates industry customer, to expand our electrification solutions beyond mining. When it comes to sustainability, the quarry and aggregates industry requires diverse solutions. Our collaboration with CRH is an exciting opportunity to learn together and gain valuable insights into how our products can best support CRH’s long-term objectives to decarbonize its operations,” said Resource Industries Group President Denise Johnson in the company's press release announcing the partnership.
READ MORE: Construction Equipment Digs Deeper into Electrification
