Increasing scaffolding levels without adding weight, going from two stories to seven

About the customer

Headquartered in Regau, Austria, RINGER is a leading manufacturer of scaffolding and formwork systems with offices throughout Europe. For more than 80 years, RINGER has been supplying high-quality products to its customers worldwide. The company’s product range spans facade scaffolding, fall protection systems, transport containers and formwork systems for modern concrete buildings and frame structures, such as multistory buildings. Committed to quality and reliability, RINGER designs scaffolding that meets stringent material and safety requirements. To fulfill the company’s exacting quality standards, RINGER has implemented Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Simcenter™ software, which is a leading design and simulation technology, in its product development process. Simcenter is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Their challenge

Used mainly on construction sites, scaffolding systems must be constantly monitored and tested to meet the industry’s latest safety standards. RINGER knows ensuring product safety begins in design development; finding the correct dimensioning early plays a crucial role in creating quality designs. Ensuring accurate dimensioning is essential, since unprecise dimensions can cause project delays and increase development and material costs.

In a new project, RINGER engineers needed to design a new component of a facade scaffolding system called a cornice frame. Cornice frames are used when parts of a building extend into the scaffolding area, requiring the scaffolding to bypass these protrusions. Inherent in their design, cornice frames are less vertically load bearing than standard scaffolding frames. The challenge lies in optimizing the maximum vertical load from the scaffolding above while simultaneously allowing sufficient clearance for building protrusions.

RINGER’s main goal was to extend the number of scaffolding levels above the cornice frame without increasing the frame’s weight. Until recently, RINGER’s approach to finding the right dimensioning for new products involved initial design followed by an evaluation by a structural engineering expert. Since this process involved using traditional finite element analysis (FEA), this meant RINGER often needed to wait up to several weeks before receiving the feedback needed to perform revisions. Furthermore, although the FEAcentric approach was usually able to reliably identify and prevent under-dimensioned components, it often missed over-dimensioned components, which led to unnecessary material use, higher costs and delays.

Since RINGER produces its products in high volumes, reducing these products‘ mass and costs were vital. To address these challenges and foster an efficient design process, RINGER sought a new simulation tool that would allow them to calculate structural loads early in development. Ideally, the tool would also provide feedback on product behavior as designers adjusted models. Lastly, the tool needed to be easy to use and implement.

The models with more than two floors on top showed a large area with von Mises stresses exceeding the steel’s yield strength.

Our solution

When RINGER learned about the capabilities of Siemens structural analysis software Simcenter Simsolid™ software – part of the Simcenter design and simulation platform – their development team started using the tool extensively. Simcenter Simsolid is easy to use and empowered RINGER to perform structural analyses without having to rely on external experts. One of the first projects was the dimensioning of a steel cornice frame measuring 0.65 meters by 2 meters, featuring a double balustrade. The project had to comply with two Eurocodes (EN 12810 and EN 12811), which are standardized rules for the structural and geotechnical design for scaffolding throughout Europe.

Using Simcenter Simsolid, the RINGER designers were able to perform the load analyses in parallel with the design process and quickly and reliably attain optimal results. To perform a structural (linear) analysis of the design, the project team assumed various load combinations (von Mises criteria) in the model. According to the results of the stress analysis, the models with more than two floors on top showed a large area with von Mises stresses exceeding the steel’s yield strength. As a result, the team gained a clear understanding of how to modify the design to meet Eurocode requirements for structures used on upper floors.

Using the results of the stress analysis, RINGER gained a clear understanding of how to modify the design to meet requirements.

Results

By conducting load analyses in parallel with the design process with Simcenter Simsolid, RINGER’s project engineers saved a significant amount of time while slashing the number of physical prototypes needed to achieve production maturity. Furthermore, since Simcenter Simsolid reliably identified over-dimensioned components, RINGER was able to streamline material usage to achieve substantial mass and cost savings. The tool enabled the project team to achieve their goal of increasing the number of scaffolding levels while not adding weight to the system. Now, instead of two stories, seven stories are possible. Since Simcenter Simsolid was easy to use, RINGER’s engineers were empowered to run simulations and achieve reliable results without needing in-depth knowledge of finite element modeling (FEM). This democratization of simulation, which drove substantial savings in time, costs and material usage, would not have been possible without Siemens software.

“Thanks to the fast, accurate results provided by using Simcenter Simsolid, we drastically reduced our development time and the number of physical prototypes needed,” Hermann Pohn, head of product management and product development at RINGER. “As a result of this much-accelerated design process, we significantly lowered our development costs while maintaining the high standards RINGER is known for.”

For RINGER, using Simcenter simulation-driven design software has become invaluable, enabling all its engineers to quickly achieve optimal results while maintaining the high standards required in their industry. RINGER also aims to leverage other Siemens solutions within the Simcenter platform, such as Simcenter Inspire™ software for topology optimization, to further meet their organizational goals and satisfy their customers.