A leader in combustion engines

Strict adherence to process and quality requirements

As an independent engine producer, Yuchai manufactures various models of light, medium and heavy engines that are widely used in automobiles, construction machinery, agricultural machinery, vessels, power generators, and other applications. For new products, Yuchai has established a set of strict development procedures that clearly define the work for each stage. The CAE department plays an indispensable role in the whole product development process. For example, CAE now primarily verifies the feasibility of product programs at the design stage and plays an important role in selecting optimal programs.

All of the engines developed by Yuchai have been subjected to comprehensive CAE analysis in compliance with Yuchai’s development procedures. Analysis yields many constructive suggestions for improvement that contribute significantly to product quality and development cycle reduction. The CAE department also plays an important role in such aspects as quickly completing troubleshooting and other processes when conducting failure analysis at the test stage. For example, a collision once occurred between the valve and piston of an engine model developed by Yuchai. The company made efforts to determine the cause but initially failed. To the company’s surprise, within three days after their intervention, members of the CAE department identified the true cause: an assembly error caused by incorrect markings made by the supplier during the machining process.

Such instances fully demonstrate the advantages of CAE software. Among many other CAE solutions, Simcenter 3D software had the unique honor of being adopted by Yuchai due to its suitability, accuracy, reliability and other characteristics. Simcenter 3D (formerly NX CAE) which is built on the NX platform and hence provides a seamless CAD-CAE experience when used with NX for CAD, has been used in Yuchai’s innovation and development activities for almost 20 years.

Market changes and challenges

Trusted partner, outstanding solutions

Custom programming, optimization and customization

With continuous development, Yuchai also changed its use of CAE to meet its business requirements. Yuchai divides CAE work into two fields: “innovative” and “mature.” The mature field addresses a lot of simple and repetitive work. NX enables automation of such work by leveraging simple and easy-to-use simulation templates, built by CAE experts using Simcenter 3D, that can be employed by designers to execute a guided CAE analysis process. Yuchai has developed three CAE templates based on the programming functionality of NX and Simcenter 3D and has made them available for use by designers.

The use of NX along with Simcenter 3D at Yuchai has enabled another change in process: design engineers can analyze their part designs by themselves, without transferring simulation work to the CAE department or waiting or converting models, which saves a lot of time and enables CAE analysis to be applied effectively throughout the project. Meanwhile, design engineers can use CAE to analyze several alternative designs and select the best design for trial manufacturing. A key advantage is that after designers modify the NX CAD model, the Simcenter 3D analysis model is automatically updated, enabling engineers to rapidly compare several designs.

In addition, using analysis templates enables design engineers to apply CAE analysis expertise when simulating and analyzing parts. The use of templates does not require extra learning or change design engineers’ work habits. Engineer-oriented analysis works effectively and complements CAE analysis by experts.

Lu and Zhou emphasize that with continuous product innovation and development, Yuchai still needs to standardize the process of each calculation to form its own simulation processes and database and build the company’s design expertise. The company plans to continue to conduct in-depth custom program development so that professional simulation engineers can focus on analysis of the results and develop more easy-to-use tools for design engineers. Yuchai will partner with Siemens Digital Industries Software to continuously improve its capabilities for greater achievement. “Yuchai develops markets through outstanding products, wins customers through high quality, and drives the future through innovation” says Lu. “With the strong support of Siemens Digital Industries Software, we will certainly build a brighter future.”