Speed and force:
Speed and force: software for faster hydraulic circuit design To speed up the process of designing innovative hydraulic circuits, HydraForce and Famic Technologies have collaborated on the integration of two hydraulic design software products, i-Design and Automation Studio. HydraForce’s i-Design is an easy-to-use hydraulic circuit design software. Famic’s Automation Studio is a powerful hydraulic simulation software. When used together, the two software products allow a hydraulic system designer to create a circuit, then function-test it for performance before building a prototype. The use of software to both design and simulate performance before manufacturing can improve efficiency on multiple levels – in the manifold itself, in the manufacturing process, and on the machine. “We’ve worked hard with Famic throughout the years to improve the capabilities of the i-Design tool and to improve the compatibility of its schematics with the powerful Automation Studio simulation tool”, said Tony Casale, HydraForce Executive Vice President, Business Development. “Thanks to our partnership with Famic, we can virtually test any i-Design circuit and fine tune our designs in Automation Studio before cutting any metal”. then generate a report and bill of materials which they can use to develop a price with an authorized HydraForce distributor. Faster engineering i-Design software gives the designer the ability to select valves by graphic symbol or function as well as model number or description. The library includes more than 500 valves, including the latest multi-function, high-pressure, load-sensing cartridge valves and electronic valve drivers. Common combinations of valves for hydraulic inlets, fan drives, flow and directional control systems are now available in the software. A new graphical user interface based on Microsoft Windows also helps to speed up the design process. Version 5 of i-Design takes a large technological leap forward with the internal PRO add-on, a feature that can automate a manifold design and allows for click and drag plotting of cross-drills within a hydraulic manifold. This feature improves the speed of design and manufacturability. “While nothing can completely replace the human touch, i-Design provides technology that takes into account the design considerations shared by our specialized group of more than 25 manifold designers throughout the world,” said David Price, Global Marketing Manager. “Our approach to manifold design has always Creating greater synergies MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL Charbel Nasr, President of Famic Technologies said, “Version 5 of i-Design integrates the results of several years of intensive R&D effort to develop high performance algorithms to support the work of manifold design engineers. The software helps the engineers to dedicate more time on the most important part of a manifold project: creating quickly the solution that best fits customer’s requirements. The overall time spent on a project is significantly reduced thanks to the intuitive trade-oriented interface that optimizes every step of the project lifecycle. We are very pleased with our long-term partnership with HydraForce and are committed to supporting users of i-Design and Automation Studio for greater synergy”. Version 5 of i-Design includes a number of new features that allow users to develop custom integrated manifold circuits, specify valve assembly layout, and generate a bill of material for their assembly. The user can build a circuit using “drag and drop” technology to specify the location of valves, ports, mounting holes and other manufacturers’ components on the manifold block. The user can then optimize the circuit by using the software to suggest options to reduce the size of the manifold. i-Design can MDA Technologies 4/2016
een to remove the concept of a one size fits all solution. The best manifold designs can and should be a collaborative process. With this release we are furthering our position of leadership. However, there’s simply no technological replacement for an applications engineer meeting with a customer to provide an optimized design,” he added. “The technology integrated into i-Design 5 will also be used to augment and improve our hydraulic circuit design capabilities. It gives us the flexibility to automate aspects of our manifold design to improve throughput speed and fully facilitates our iterative approach to manifold design by allowing us to easily present alternatives to the customer so they can choose the best options for their machine. It also removes a lot of the documentation burden associated with engineered to order products by providing report exports for machining, bill of material, and dimensional prints.” Seamless designing i-Design is personal computer (PC)-based rather than web-based, which allows it to take advantage of the inherent processing power of the PC to configure designs that best suit the needs of the customer. “In the last five years, we’ve really focused on making i-Design the fastest way to do a hydraulic circuit design,” said Rick Clendening, Technical Services Manager. “To save time, we’ve About HydraForce HydraForce was founded in 1985, just north of Chicago by several partners who had the foresight to identify the mobile equipment industry's need for high quality hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds. Today, we have grown to several manufacturing locations in North America, Europe and Asia, featuring a worldwide network of 120 stocking distributors who can provide our customers with all the local support they need. About Famic Technologies The portfolio of the company Famic Technologies, founded in 1986, includes high-end products and services in the field of software engineering and industrial automation. The well-known software solution Automation Studio was originally developed for training and further education purposes in the field of fluid technology and is used today all through the industry, for systems development and optimization, maintenance, services and training. prepackaged some of the most common combinations of valves in what we call the INTEGR8 circuits. Design engineers now have the option to start from scratch, or choose a time-saving INTEGR8 circuit then customize it for the specific needs of their application.” New INTEGR8 circuits include inlets and fan drives for fixed or variable displacement pumps in two flow ranges 0 to 15 gpm or 0 to 50 gpm. Inlet circuits can be selected. Circuits for directional control and flow control are also included in i-Design 5. “The integration of i-Design 5 and Automation Studios makes the hydraulic design process even more seamless,” added Clendening. “We can optimize the size of the manifold in i-Design, to make the manifold as small and efficient as possible, then bring the i-Design file into Automation Studio to simulate and optimize the circuit for the customer’s machine.” i-Design supports global applications with language options in English and Chinese. Designs can be created in English and auto-translated into Chinese, or created in Chinese and auto-translated into English. To integrate with Automation Studio users can download the hydraulic valve library compatibility pack, create and modify prototype hydraulic schematics, and then model and function-test system performance specifications in Automation Studio before creating a prototype manifold. www.hydraforce.com i-Design 5 speeds selection of hydraulic valves and can automate aspect of manifold design MDA Technologies 4/2016
