DEVELOP3D April / May 2023

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Sustainability is a word I’ve avoided for a long time. Ever since its peak buzzword period back in around 2014, I’ve watched marketing departments handcuff this word to a radiator and beat the meaning out of it, until every annual report and product roadmap has been splattered with green tears. All companies have a sustainability viewpoint, some with very little to back it up. In many cases, it’s a cobbled-together piece of bandwagon-jumping that tarnishes what might otherwise have been positive moves in the right direction.

But, having recently had my interest piqued by new sustainability calculator tools, I began to look at what sustainability means today. I was delighted to find plenty of companies producing credible, promising and sustainable products, not simply in an attempt to ‘Greta Thunberg’ their brands, but because it is often the best thing to do, on a number of levels.

This issue, our cover story showcases Tevva, the manufacturer of electric and hydrogen-electric goods vehicles. While Tevva wears its eco interests on its sleeve, it also wears a pair of steel toe capped boots that are firmly anchored in the reality of what modern transportation needs to be. The potential benefits of electrifying this form of transportation are huge, not just in terms of fossil fuel avoidance, but also in hard-nosed cost-per-mile terms for businesses.

We also learn how skills learned from mass manufacturing can be used to replenish the nature it has played a part in wrecking; how products designed to stay the course can reclaim ground lost to so-called ‘fast fashion’ items; and how recycled materials are evolving to find their place in the manufacturing ecosystem.

There’s a lot of pressure being placed on design and engineering to save this planet, and thankfully, there’s plenty of evidence that our readers in the sector are making every effort to play their part. But sadly, nothing seems likely to save any of us from the buzzwords any time soon.

NEWS

Workstation news from Intel, AMD, HP, Lenovo and Dell, plus Xencelabs launches new Pen Display 24

Studio and Zea gets to grips with technical content

FEATURES

Comment: Autodesk’s Zoe Bezpalko on eco-friendly design

Comment: SJ takes the space race to task

Visual Design Guide: Yanmar’s vineyard spraying robot

COVER STORY Tevva’s power ranger hits the road

Made to last: Wingback’s challenge to throwaway culture

Coral Maker on repairing environmental damage to reefs

Blow by blow: Lontra’s energy-efficient blade compressor

Pack it in: Greener options from Lester Packaging

Bright spark: Markforged on copper 3D printing tech

Lacks Enterprises reinvents the wheel for fuel efficiency

DEVELOP3D’s guide to nine new eco-friendly materials

Virtuous circle: Work from Ansys on plastics recycling

Double shot: Digital twins in action at Gruppo Cimbali

Introducing the Nokia G22, a repairable smartphone

THE LAST WORD

New eco-friendly products are everywhere these days, but it’s the way that they are packaged and protected in transit that could make all the difference to the planet, writes Stephen

Holmes

INTEL LAUNCHES 'SAPPHIRE RAPIDS' XEON DESKTOP WORKSTATION PROCESSORS

» With 16 models ranging from 6 to 56 'Golden Cove' cores, Intel finally has some workstation CPUs to fight back against the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX

Intel has launched its long-awaited ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel Xeon W-2400 and Xeon W-3400 singlesocket workstation processors with up to 56 cores – considerably more than the previous generation.

These are the first workstation-specific processors from Intel in some time and will enable Intel to compete more strongly with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WXSeries in demanding workflows that benefit from more cores, more memory or higher memory bandwidth, such as visualisation and simulation.

The Intel Xeon W-2400 and Xeon W-3400 series will be of less interest to users of CAD software, who should be better served by 13th Gen Intel Core processors. Intel’s entry-level CPU family generally has fewer cores and less memory bandwidth, but higher clock speeds and higher instructions per clock (IPC), which are important for single-threaded performance.

The Intel Xeon W-2400 Series is classified as a ‘mainstream’ workstation processor with eight models ranging from 6 to 24 cores. Meanwhile, the Intel Xeon W-3400 Series is for ‘experts’ with seven models ranging from 12 to 56 cores.

The new processors are comprised entirely of ‘Golden Cove’ cores; they do not have the hybrid Performance Core (P-Core)/Efficiency Core (E-core) architecture pioneered by 12th Gen and 13th Gen Intel Core processors.

Beyond the number of cores, there are some significant differences between the two processor families. Compared to the Intel Xeon W-2400, the Intel Xeon W-3400

has more memory channels (8 vs 4), more memory capacity (4 TB vs 2 TB), more PCIe lanes (112 vs 64, so it can support more add-in GPUs), more Intel Smart Cache (L3) and a higher max base power (350W vs 225W).

As a first for Xeon processors, certain models – those with an X suffix – are unlocked so the processor can be overclocked. A range of tuning features will be made available through the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel XTU). While it’s unlikely that major OEMs will go down the overclocking route, this level of control could leave the gates open for specialist workstation manufacturers such as Armari and BOXX to differentiate themselves by squeezing more performance out of the platform.

WHAT DEVELOP3D THINKS

While Intel has done a great job with 12th and 13th Gen Intel Core, it’s essentially been four years since the company had a new workstation processor for anything other than entry-level workflows like CAD.

Yes, there was the Intel

W-3300 Series in 2021, but this ‘Icy Lake’ processor was not taken up by any of the major workstation OEMs. Remarkably, there are still workstations on sale with 2019 ‘Cascade Lake’ Xeon processors. In fact, the HP Z4 G4 and Dell

Precision 5820, which are currently being replaced, date back to 2017.

As Intel’s workstation business has stuttered, AMD has grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Over the last few years, it has celebrated OEM wins with AMD

Among the Intel Xeon W-2400 Series, the processors that stand out are the Xeon w7-2495X and w7-2475X which combine high core counts with the highest boost frequencies. The lower-end models may well be suited to engineering simulation – applications that tend to benefit from higher memory bandwidth but don’t necessarily take advantage of lots of cores. They can also provide a platform for multiGPU workflows, such as GPU rendering. There’s a similar pattern with the Intel Xeon W-3400 Series, with the higher end models featuring the largest number of cores and highest boost frequencies. The range tops out with the 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X with a base frequency of 1.9 GHz and a Turbo Boost Max 3.0 of 4.80 GHz. www.intel.com

'Sapphire Rapids' Xeon gives Intel the high-core count, highmemory bandwidth workstation CPU it has lacked for years

Ryzen Threadripper Pro, including the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 and Dell Precision 7865 Tower. Intel simply has had nothing that can compete at the high-core count, high-memory bandwidth end of the market. To this backdrop, the importance

to Intel of ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Xeon W-2400 /W-3400 cannot be overstated.

With a total of 17 models covering multiple different specs and price points, Intel certainly has a broad range of processors to take on the five Threadripper Pro CPUs

currently available. On paper, the Xeon W-2400 Series looks well placed to bridge a gap between AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro in workflows that might benefit from more memory bandwidth or more PCIe lanes.

AMD LAUNCHES RDNA 3 PRO GPUS AND TAKES THE FIGHT TO NVIDIA ON PRICE/PERFORMANCE

» New AMD Radeon Pro W7900 and W7800 workstation GPUs target high-end workstation users for ray tracing, real-time 3D, video editing and other workflows

AMD has launched the Radeon Pro W7900 and W7800, the first workstation GPUs to be built on AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture.

Target workflows for the new high-end cards include visualisation, real-time 3D, ray trace rendering, photogrammetry, VR, simulation, video editing and more.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7900 is tripleslot (2.5) GPU with 48 GB of GDDR6 memory, 61 TFLOPs of peak single precision performance and a total board power of 295W. It costs $3,999.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7800 is a dualslot GPU with 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, 45 TFLOPs of peak single precision performance and a total board power of 260W. It costs $2,499.

Both GPUs comprise multiple unified RDNA 3 compute units, each with 64 dual issue stream processors, two AI accelerators and a second gen ray tracing (RT) accelerator. According to AMD, RDNA 3 offers up to 50% more ray tracing performance per compute unit than the previous generation.

AMD’s ray tracing (RT) accelerators are compatible with Unreal Engine, Unity, Lumion, Enscape, Solidworks Visualise, D5 Render, Maxon Redshift, plus other applications that support DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Vulkan ray tracing, or AMD Radeon ProRender, including Acca Edificius, Autodesk Inventor, Rhino, Autodesk Maya and Blender.

The new GPUs will go up against the Nvidia RTX A6000 Ada Generation (48 GB). While AMD only names two benchmarks where the Radeon Pro W7900 will outpace Nvidia’s flagship pro GPU (the 3ds Max and Maya viewsets

in SPECviewperf 2020), it points out that both AMD GPUs are extremely competitive on price/performance.

In SPECviewperf 2020 GeoMean, for example, AMD claims the Radeon Pro W7900 is within 7% of the performance of the Nvidia RTX A6000 Ada Generation but offers more than double the price/ performance, as it costs less than half ($3,999 vs $8,615).

AMD also highlights support for DisplayPort 2.1, the latest version of the digital display standard that offers three times the data rate of DisplayPort 1.4. According to AMD, this means its new GPUs are future-proofed for next gen displays, covering refresh rate, pixel resolution and colour bit-depth, while pointing out that the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation supports DisplayPort 1.4.

With 48 GB, the Radeon Pro W7900

also marks a step up in terms of memory, with 50% more than its predecessor, the Radeon Pro W6800. This puts it on par with the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada.

Memory is becoming increasingly important for viz workflows, not just to support extremely complex high-polygon datasets, but for multi-tasking as well, as product designer, Dr Adi Pandzic explains, “Large format renders require more horsepower, especially when doing 4K ray traced animations using [Solidworks] Visualize. The Radeon Pro W7900 allows me to easily keep working on the model [in Solidworks CAD] while rendering in the background.”

Rich Hurrey, president and founder of Kitestring, shares a similar view, “The increased memory that the new AMD RDNA 3 GPUs offer, allows us to have multiple instances of Maya, Modo and Unreal Engine open at the same time. All of this means that production work gets done faster and in real time.”

Memory also differentiates the new pro GPUs from AMD’s consumer focused RDNA 3 GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX which has 24 GB. Both pro GPUs also come with AMD Software: Pro Edition. This offers professional software certifications for ‘performance and stability’, and pro features such as ViewPort Boost, which dynamically adjusts viewport resolution to boost performance in some applications, remote workstation support and more.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7000 Series workstation graphics cards are expected to be available in Q2 2023. Product availability in OEM and SI systems is expected in 2H 2023.

Look out for a full review soon.

www.amd.com/radeonpro

HP updates entry-level workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core CPUs

HP has refreshed its entrylevel HP Z Workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core processors and the latest Nvidia RTX professional GPUs. The Z2 Mini G9, Z2 SFF G9, Z2 Tower G9, and Z1 Tower G9 join the 'Sapphire Rapids' Z4 G5, Z6 G5 and Z8 G5 workstations (see page 13) for a comprehensive update of its desktop workstation family.

The updated 'G9 Edition' Z workstations will support a range of 13th Gen Intel Core CPUs up to the Core i9-13900K. HP has not yet announced which new 'Ada Generation' Nvidia RTX GPUs it will support, but we expect the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation will feature widely (see page 14), even in the compact HP Z2 Mini G9 (pictured right) HP could be waiting for Nvidia to expand its Ada Generation pro GPU offerings

before making an announcement.

HP has also improved the remote management capabilities of its Intel Core workstations, announcing support for the new HP Anyware Remote System Controller in the Z2 Mini G9, Z2 SFF G9, and Z2 Tower G9. The controller offers out-of-band management, allowing IT departments to monitor and manage a workstation fleet from ‘anywhere’ www.hp.com/zworkstations

The AMD Radeon Pro W7000 Series workstation graphics cards are expected to be available in Q2 2023

XENCELABS LAUNCHES NEW 24-INCH DRAWING DISPLAY

Lasers adjusted by Smart Fusion

EOS has announced its new Smart Fusion software technology for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) metal 3D printing that automatically adjusts laser power in real time.

The technology is designed to eliminate the need for most support structures, minimise material use, reduce postprocessing requirements, and lower the cost-per-part (CPP) for metal AM applications. It can intuitively detect potential build problems, auto-adjust laser power, and eliminate the wasted time and resources often associated with ‘trial and error’ additive manufacturing.

www.eos.info

Xencelabs has unveiled its new Pen Display 24 Studio, a 24inch digital drawing display targeting professionals with plenty of features designed to enhance their drawing experience.

The new product boasts an edge-toedge drawing surface with etched glass for a natural ‘paper-esque’ feel under the stylus; enhanced glare reduction and fingerprint resistance; Pantone Color and SkinTone validation; and an array of stand and VESA mount options.

The display delivers 1.07 billion colours for accurate colour reproduction while its 4K ultra high definition resolution (up to 3840 x 2160) contributes to an improved workflow when working on fine details.

Xencelabs says that its team has worked hard to tune the display’s pressure curve for optimal responsiveness and stroke-to-

stroke accuracy, with the pen response adjustable to each user’s drawing style.

There are also an array of different customisation options that can be configured according to user preference, and some neat new features for better usability, including a built-in tilt stand which comes as standard, as well as silent, fan-less operation thanks to a magnesium alloy rear housing that dissipates heat.

“We listened to artists and their input is reflected in the Pen Display’s design: stunning display fidelity, an excellent drawing experience, superior ergonomics and more,” said Xencelabs head of product Michael Thompson.

Available in the second quarter of 2023, the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 will cost £1,850 in the UK and $1,899 / €2,099 elsewhere.

www.xencelabs.com

Zea to tackle technical content management

Zea has announced the beta release of its cloud-based 3D equipment documentation platform, designed to enable manufacturers to work efficiently with distributed after-sales teams who need secure access to 3D models in order to create deliverables.

The company behind Zea Engine said that, thanks to the platform, new manufacturers can streamline and differentiate their technical content, while established ones can extend Industry 4.0 investments to benefit teams outside of engineering, such as after-sales.

The primary features of the beta version include unlimited users, organisations, workspaces and projects; the ability to collaborate with remote teams; and compatibility with over 20 3D CAD file formats, including Solidworks, Inventor,

New biz model from Protolabs

Protolabs has announced a new manufacturing model that aims to provide its customer base with wider access to more advanced capabilities and reduced part costs. By tapping into a digital network of manufacturers connected through the Hubs platform, customers can benefit from new capabilities across CNC machining, injection moulding and 3D printing. This complements the lowvolume, on-demand services already available from Protolabs’ sites in Telford, UK and Putzbrunn, Germany.

www.protolabs.com

Dyndrite gets to work on Mastro

Dyndrite has announced it will partner with Mimo Technik and Astro Mechanical Testing Laboratory on the development of materials qualification platform Mastro.

Through Mastro, the partners will offer organisations qualified materials for companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Creo, NX and Solid Edge. It also boasts an illustration version history feature and the ability to create single-source 3D models across all technical illustrations.

The platform will be generally available this Spring, according to Zea Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Smith.

www.zea.live

The involvement of Dyndrite, a provider of GPU-accelerated computation used to create digital manufacturing hardware and software, will support the codification of Mastro build recipes, in order to ensure repeatable quality and traceability.

www.dyndrite.com

Xencelabs promises "stunning image quality" for users of its new Pen Display 24 Studio

Zea is on a mission to change the way that technical content is created, published and maintained

HEXAGON OPENS NEXUS CLOUD PLATFORM TO ALL USERS

Nexus, the new open cloud platform from Hexagon, is looking to put an end to the data silos that hamper innovation by enabling real-time collaboration and feedback between Hexagon’s own products and third-party software.

Initially announced in June 2022, the platform is now open to all users, following beta testing by companies in Europe and North America. It launches with a modest offering that its developers claim will grow quickly with user needs.

Co-engineered with Microsoft, Nexus has been created to empower siloed teams so they can use data better in order to invent sustainable and optimised products in a more efficient and agile way, and then manufacture them to the required quality.

The platform will feature cloud apps, both from Hexagon and third parties, as well as the ability to connect up onpremises and legacy software, including that used to run shop floor equipment.

“It’s a workflow that hopefully makes it much easier to solve problems because it drives this collaboration across disciplines,” said Stephen Graham, executive vice president and general manager for Nexus at Hexagon.

“We often hear it from customers: disciplines tend to be quite siloed. They’re individuals who’ve built up engineering expertise in their specific area over the last 20 years or more and they’re specialists in that area. But it’s almost like they speak a totally different language.”

He gave the example of miscommunication between engineers trying to solve the manufacturability

problems posed by a specific product, and that product’s designers, who may be less familiar with the manufacturing practicalities involved.

In this situation, according to Graham, Nexus can break down the communications barriers and get participants to start speaking the same language in order to get problems solved.

Nexus will also work across organisational boundaries, allowing for better collaboration between outsourced design and manufacturing services and bureaux, but enabling elements like AM build prep or post-processing to be handled in-house.

Key to all this is integration technology developed by Hexagon for linking apps and bringing into Nexus data generated from other systems and devices. www.hexagonmi.com

Glasses-free 3D viz tech launched by Sony

Sony has unveiled its secondgeneration spatial reality display, the ELF-SR2. This features a 27-inch screen (expanding on the first generation model’s 15.6-inch screen) and wider tool compatibility.

Available for just over £4,000, the ELF-SR2 targets designers and developers who want to see their projects in three dimensions without being encumbered by glasses or a VR headset. The expanded 4K screen can more accurately track viewers’ eyes for smoother 3D presentations.

Highlights of the new offering include an upgraded high-speed vision sensor, image quality enhancing technologies, and installation flexibility. Additionally, the ELF-SR2 promises to enable more robust functionality through its support of applications and development.

ROUND UP

Nexa3D has announced a deal to acquire all of the technology, distribution and service offerings of XYZprinting’s SLS 3D printer business. The USbased high-speed resin 3D printer manufacturer will add XYZ’s MfgPro230 xS and MfgPro236 xS printers to its product portfolio www.nexa3D.com

Siemens and Microsoft are to integrate Siemens’ Teamcenter PLM software with Microsoft Teams. The Teamcenter app for Microsoft Teams, due to launch later in 2023, will help design engineers and factory-floor workers close feedback loops faster and solve challenges together www.sw.siemens.com

Electrical connectors that were additively manufactured using a new photopolymer for enduse applications from 3D Systems have been awarded industry certification. The development marks another major milestone in the evolution of 3D printing for building electrical components www.3dsystems.com

Oqton has announced it has entered into a partnership with Farsoon Technologies, in order to enable a complete manufacturing workflow to be carried out within a single software solution. The aim here is to increase productivity and maximise innovation for industrial manufacturers www.oqton.com

Optimised for industrial design, surgical planning, AEC work and games development, among other activities, Sony offers ‘streamlined development’ through software development kits (SDKs). Users will be able to build VR/AR content on the display in real time later this year.

www.sony.com

Beta CAE has announced the launch of v23.0.3, which comes with significant improvements to the company's Ansa, Epilysis and Meta integrated tools, and aims to improve user experience in daily tasks, in part by reducing the risk of incomplete translations occurring www.beta-cae.com

Hexagon's Nexus cloud platform integrates data from disparate apps and connected systems

The ELF-SR2 is designed to bring 3D content to life without the need for glasses or a headset

NEW LENOVO THINKSTATION WORKSTATIONS

CO-DESIGNED WITH ASTON MARTIN

» New multi-core ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel Xeon workstations - the ThinkStation

P5, P7 and PX - blur the boundaries between desktop and data centre

Lenovo has introduced the ThinkStation P5, P7 and PX (pronounced P10), a trio of desktop workstations powered by Intel’s long-awaited ‘Sapphire Rapids’ CPUs and Nvidia RTX GPUs, including the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada generation.

The flagship ThinkStation PX is the most expandable of the new machines, featuring dual 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (up to 2 x 60-cores), up to 2 TB of DDR5 memory, and up to four dual-slot GPUs, including the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation. It is designed to handle the most demanding multi-threaded or multiGPU workflows such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), ray trace rendering and video editing.

The ThinkStation P7 comes with a choice of workstation-specific Intel Xeon W-3400 Series processors (up to 56 cores). The single-socket machine will likely hit the price/performance sweet spot for many visualisation and simulation workflows, especially those that can’t take advantage of more than 56 cores. It can also support up to three dual-slot GPUs.

The ThinkStation P5 features Intel Xeon W-2400 Series CPUs (up to 24 cores) and up to two dual-slot GPUs. Lenovo calls the P5 an ‘industry workhorse’ and it looks well-suited to a wide range of workflows from CAD and visualisation to simulation and reality modelling.

ASTON MARTIN INSPIRED DESIGN

All three workstations feature new toolless chassis, designed with the help of automaker Aston Martin, who will use the workstations to design and develop its own high-performance vehicles. The

chassis features advanced thermal designs, and highlight Lenovo’s trademark red throughout, as Cathal Loughnane, director of partnerships at Aston Martin explains in reference to the ThinkStation PX, “The red is not only the icon or the signature of the Lenovo brand, but it’s also the guide to the machine. For instance, if you need to know how to swap the drives, look for the red. If you need to power on the machine, look for the red. Need to change the fan inside the tower? Look for the red. The ultimate in ergonomics is there is no user manual, and you don’t need one with this new design.”

The ThinkStation PX offers ‘unobstructed airflow’ from front to back, across CPUs, GPUs and memory. This has been made possible by shifting the Power Supply Unit(s) and Hard disk Drives (HDDs) to one side of the chassis. Cool air is drawn in through the ‘3D Hexperf’ front grill by six hot swappable and removable cooling fans.

RACK OPTIMISED

The ThinkStation PX and P7 were built from the ground up to be ‘rack optimised’ and offer several features to transform these desktop machines into what Lenovo describes as a ‘hybrid cloud workstation’, with remote management capabilities similar to those found in rack servers.

This includes an optional

The new workstations feature a new toolless chassis, designed with the help of automaker Aston Martin, who will use the workstations to design and develop its own highperformance vehicles

Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) card that will give IT managers ‘full remote management’. It will enable them to monitor the workstation, cycle on and off, perform BIOS or firmware updates and re-image the machine if necessary. In addition to data centre deployments, this could be of interest to IT managers supporting those working from home. The machines also feature enhanced onboard diagnostics with a small LCD display on the front that shows a QR code in the event of a system error – even out of band failure states when a machine won’t turn on. The user simply snaps the code with their smart phone, and they will be taken directly to the relevant page on the Lenovo service website.

The ThinkStation PX earns its data centre credentials from the rack optimised ‘5U’ design. There are built in handles and standard bolt holes hidden under a removable top cover, making it easy to deploy in a standard 19-inch rack with the optional sliding rack rail kit.

For resiliency and redundancy, the machine comes with two rear hotswappable 1,850W power supply units (PSUs), so should one PSU fail, the machine will carry on working. Other features include a rear accessible power button and lockable front access hot swap storage, which includes options for both 3.5-inch Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and SSDs. Look out for a full review soon.

www.lenovo.com

HP'S ‘SAPPHIRE RAPIDS’ WORKSTATIONS

PUT SPOTLIGHT ON REMOTE MANAGEMENT

» HP Z4, Z6, Z8 and Z8 Fury G5 target demanding product development and manufacturing workflows, from viz to simulation and CAM

The new machines will replace the G4 editions that were first introduced back in 2017.

The new HP Z Workstations are built from the ground up for Intel’s ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstation processors. This includes the Intel Xeon W-2400 Series (with up to 24-cores) and Intel Xeon W-3400 Series (with up to 56-cores).

With an emphasis on cores, as opposed to the highest clock speeds, plus support for up to four high-end GPUs and lots of high-bandwidth DDR5 memory, the new workstations look best-suited to very

capabilities to its Z Workstations. The new hardware-based HP Anyware Remote System Controller allows IT administrators to launch a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) session and perform out-of-band management tasks such as pre-boot access, BIOS updates and re-imaging from anywhere.

The HP Z4 G5 edition features the workstation-specific ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel Xeon W-2400 Series CPU, available with 6 to 24 cores, up to 512 GB of RAM and up to two dual slot GPUs.

The HP Z6 G5 supports the Intel Xeon

WHAT DEVELOP3D THINKS

‘Sapphire Rapids’ as a workstation platform is arguably more important to HP than any of the other major workstation manufacturers.

Prior to the launch of these new machines, HP had to satisfy the requirements of its more demanding AEC customers through its ageing

‘Cascade Lake’ Intel Xeon HP Z G4 workstations that dated back to 2017. Meanwhile, Dell and Lenovo had plugged the gap by launching AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro workstations with up to 2 TB of memory and up

to 64 CPU cores. HP’s new workstations also face increased competition from within.

The HP Z2 family has grown in capability considerably over the last few years and the G9 editions with highfrequency 12th/13th Gen Intel Core processors are arguably the better choice for CAD and BIM. Moreover, with highperformance graphics and up to 128 GB of memory they can now deliver in more demanding design workflows as well, including reality modelling and mainstream design

visualisation. This leaves the new Z4, Z6 and Z8 G5 workstations to largely cater to workflows that only benefit from more CPU cores, more memory, more memory bandwidth, or more GPUs. We wonder if the HP Z4 will be able to retain its crown as HP’s best-selling workstation. Beyond the ‘Sapphire Rapids’ platform, HP is showing real innovation in remote workstation deployment and management. With HP Anyware Remote System Controller, it is looking to give IT managers a similar level of control over their

workstation fleet as they already have over their servers.

Combined with HP Anyware remote access and collaboration software, HP now has a joined-up solution to support the growing shift towards hybrid working.

With high clock speeds, HP Z Workstations typically offer superior performance to server-based virtual workstations. Now with increased manageability, using HP Z Workstations as a central rack-mounted resource has become more compelling, blurring

processors rather than the single-socket workstation-specific Xeons available in the other G5 machines. This gives it a dual CPU capability, two dual-slot GPUs and 1 TB of memory.

As the name suggests, the HP Z8 Fury G5 is HP’s top-end ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstation and supports the entire range of Intel Xeon W-3400 Series workstation CPUs, including the flagship 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X. With up to 1 TB, it supports twice as much memory as the Z6 and Z8 and up to four dual-slot GPUs. www.hp.com/zworkstations

the boundaries between traditional desktop workstations and servers.

Meanwhile, redundant

power supplies along with hot swappable SSDs all add to the offering.

HP has updated its entire desktop workstation range

NVIDIA ROLLS OUT 'ADA GENERATION'

LAPTOP AND DESKTOP NVIDIA RTX PRO GPUS

» Includes full range of GPUs for mobile workstations plus Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF (Small Form Factor) for compact desktop workstations

Nvidia has launched five Nvidia RTX Ada Lovelace GPUs for laptops/mobile workstations and the Nvidia RTX 4000 Small Form Factor (SFF) Ada Generation (20 GB) GPU for compact desktop workstations.

For mobile workstations, the Nvidia RTX 5000 (16 GB), 4000 (12 GB), 3500 (12 GB), 3000 (8 GB) and 2000 (8 GB) Ada Generation laptop GPUs cover all bases from entry-level to high-end, rendering, viz and simulation. They are said to deliver twice the performance and power efficiency of the previous generation.

In addition, with Deep Learning Super Sampling 3 (DLSS 3), which uses AI for rendering and viz, Nvidia says it is seeing up to a four times improvement in its Nvidia Omniverse benchmarks.

Nvidia RTX laptop GPUs will be available starting this month in mobile workstations from global manufacturer partners. Meanwhile, Nvidia is having a staggered

The Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation features 20 GB of memory, nearly double that of its predecessor, the Nvidia RTX A2000 (12 GB), and is said to offer a 2x performance improvement. The low-profile, double-height graphics card takes up two slots on the motherboard and has four mini DisplayPort1.4a

The GPU is designed to operate with PCIe slot power alone and has a max power consumption of 70W. This is significantly lower than previous generation ‘4000’ class GPUs, which typically draw up to 140W. However, in the future, Nvidia will also launch a standard Nvidia RTX 4000 GPU that can take advantage of 140W in a single slot. We expect both GPUs will be share the same silicon, but the Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF will be clocked lower.

who want to extend their workflows into visualisation, VR and simulation with tools like V-Ray, KeyShot, Omniverse and more.

The Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF GPU should be available soon from PNY and other partners for around $1,250. www.nvidia.com

Dell launches 13th Gen Intel Core Precision laptops

Dell has launched seven new Precision mobile workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia RTX Ada generation GPUs, ranging from 14-inch to 17-inch, thin and light to high performance.

The model that stands out is the Dell Precision 5680, a brand new 16-inch thin and light laptop that replaces both the 15.6-inch Dell Precision 5570 and 17.3inch Dell Precision 5770. According to Dell, the Precision 5680 has the smallest footprint out of any 16-inch mobile workstation.

The sub 2kg laptop comes with choice of 45W base power 13th Gen Intel Core vPro processors, including the Intel Core i9-13900H vPro with 14 cores, 28 threads (2.50 GHz to 5.00 GHz Turbo). For graphics, there’s a wide choice of Ada generation GPUs, up to the Nvidia RTX 5000 (16 GB), making it suited to a wide range of workflows from CAD and BIM to visualisation and simulation. The laptop supports up to 64 GB of DDR5 memory and features Dell’s patented Dual Opposite Outlet (DOO) fan to help keep thermals under control.

Displays options include a 16:10 UHD+ OLED InfinityEdge panel with ‘deep rich

blacks and a high contrast.’ There’s a haptic trackpad, which Dell claims to be an ‘industry first’ for mobile workstations, creating a ‘much more seamless, much more consistent experience’ across the entire trackpad surface.

Extended Power Range (EPR) technology means more power (165W versus 130W) can be delivered through a universal USB-C connector.

Other features include four ‘grade A’ speakers with bottom-facing subwoofers, dual array microphones, a FHD RGB IR camera and the re-introduction of an HDMi port.

Dell says the Precision 5680 is its first mobile workstation to be designed with low carbon and recycled aluminium, including 75% recycled aluminium.

Dell’s other ‘thin and light’ performance mobile workstation is the 14-inch Precision 5480, which Dell claims to be the thinnest and lightest in its class, starting at 1.48kg.

The Precision 5480 looks very similar to

2022’s Precision 5470 (see our review in Dec 22 / Jan 23 Edition) but has new internals. The Precision 5470 stood out from the competition thanks to the Nvidia ‘1000’ class graphics. The new Precision 5480 now has ‘2000’ and ‘3000’ class options thanks to new energy efficient Nvidia RTX Ada Generation GPUs. GPU memory is also doubled from 4 GB to 8 GB, which should make the machine better suited to viz-centric workflows.

Despite its smaller size, the Precision 5480 has the same choice of 13th Gen Intel Core processors as the Precision 5680 and up to 64 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

Dell has also updated its broader mobile workstation portfolio – from the entry-level 3000 Series with power efficient 15W base power 13th Gen Intel Core processors (14-inch Precision 3480 and 15.6-inch 3580) to its most powerful Precision

7000 Series with 55W base power 13th Gen Intel Core processors (16-inch Precision 7680 and 17.3-inch Precision 7780).

The Nvidia RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation features 20 GB of memory, nearly double that of its predecessor

The Dell Precision 5680 is a brand new 16-inch thin and light workstation laptop

DELL PRECISION 5860 TOWER AND 7960 TOWER WORKSTATIONS LAUNCH

» Company’s ‘Sapphire Rapids’ desktop workstations focus exclusively on single-socket Intel Xeon W-2400 and W-3400 workstation processors

release a dedicated rack workstation to support remote graphics deployments. The Precision 7960 Rack is a 2U machine which can support up to two 56-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8480+ processors and up to two double height GPUs.

Beyond CPU and GPU, the Precision 5860 and Precision 7960 differentiate themselves largely by memory capacity and expandability.

The Precision 5860 can be configured with up to 512 GB of DDR5 memory (support for 2 TB will come later with availability of 128 GB and 256 GB DIMMs). It has two lockable front drive bays, support for M.2 SSDs and 2.5-inch/3.5-inch HDDs, and up to 56 TB of total storage.

The mid-size tower is slightly smaller than the Precision 5820 it replaces and comes with a back carry handle.

Dell has launched the Dell Precision 5860 Tower and Precision 7960 Tower, a duo of ‘Sapphire Rapids’ desktop workstations that will replace the company’s ageing ‘Cascade Lake’ Dell Precision 5820 and Precision 7920.

Both workstations are single-socket. The Precision 5860 Tower comes with a choice of Intel Xeon W-2400 processors up to the 24-core Intel Xeon w7-2495X, and supports up to two double-height GPUs, including the Nvidia RTX A6000 and AMD

Radeon Pro W6800.

The Precision 7960 Tower offers Intel Xeon W-3400 processors up to the 56core Intel Xeon w9-3495X and supports up to four double-height GPUs. Dell does not mention the new Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Lovelace generation for this release. However, we expect support for this super high-end card will follow soon.

Unlike Lenovo and HP, Dell has not launched a dual-socket ‘Sapphire Rapids’ desktop workstation with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. However, it is the only one of the major three to

It looks to share the same chassis as the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro-based Precision 7865 Tower Workstation that launched last year.

The Precision 7960 can be configured with up to 1 TB DDR5 at launch and up to 4 TB post launch (with 128 GB / 256GB DIMMs). It has six lockable front drive bays and up to 152 TB of total storage. It is slightly smaller than the Precision 7920 it replaces, although this was a dual-socket machine. Both workstations offer dual network ports (1G + 10G) and optional Wireless LAN. www.dell.com/precision

HP launches G10 Edition ZBook mobile workstations

HP has launched new G10 Editions of its ZBook mobile workstations, the HP ZBook Firefly, HP ZBook Power, HP ZBook Studio, and HP ZBook Fury.

Of the new machines, the Firefly G10 and Power G10 stand out because they are the first in the ZBook portfolio to offer AMD Ryzen and Ryzen Pro processors for mobile. Both laptops can also be configured with Intel vPro powered by 13th Gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia RTX Ada Generation laptop GPUs. The models with AMD processors can be recognised by an 'A' suffix.

The HP ZBook Power G10 is a 15.6-inch laptop with up to 64 GB of memory. With an AMD processor, the Power G10 A can include integrated AMD Radeon graphics or up to Nvidia RTX 2000 Ada laptop GPU (8 GB). With an Intel Core processor, the

Power G10 can include integrated graphics or up to Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada laptop GPU (8 GB).

Other features include an all-aluminium chassis, a 2K QHD (2,560 x 1,440 resolution) 120Hz display, an auto-framing 5 MP camera, which frames the user on video calls even if they move around a little, and AI Noise Suppression, to block background noise.

The HP ZBook Studio G10 is a thin and light 16-inch mobile workstation which starts at 18mm and 1.73kg. It has higher spec graphics than the Power G10, up to the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Laptop GPU (12 GB) or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (12 GB). It comes with 64 GB

of DDR5 memory, and an optional HP DreamColor Display with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and a 120Hz refresh rate.

highest performing mobile workstation with up to an Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada

13900HX. It can be configured with up to 128 GB of memory, and up to 12 TB of storage spread across three 4 TB NVMe SSDs.

The laptop comes with a choice of 15.6-inch or 16-inch displays. It starts at 2.4kg and is 27.7mm thick.

www.hp.com/zworkstations

The Dell Precision 7960 Tower (left) and Dell Precision 5860 Tower (right)

The HP ZBook Power G10 can be configured with AMD or Intel processors

More and more companies are prioritising sustainability because the twin pressures of governments and customers are forcing them to do just that – finally! The world can’t afford to wait any longer.

From boot-strapped start-ups to large enterprises, we’re seeing significant investments being poured into creating more sustainable products and reducing energy consumption and waste in manufacturing.

It’s good for business and it’s commonsense survival instincts. In a 2022 study of 850 companies worldwide, conducted by strategy firm Boston Consulting Group, 80% said they plan to increase their investments in sustainability.

The European Net-Zero Industry Act and the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) both provide public funds specifically for manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions.

The IRA provides nearly $6 billion to industrial and manufacturing facilities engaged in energy-intensive industrial processes. It can help fund installation and implementation of new technologies or even early-stage engineering studies to prepare a facility to lower its emissions.

Public funding is moving sustainability away from being considered a costly requirement and toward becoming a legitimate growth opportunity.

DIGITALISATION’S ROLE

Research shows that, in some parts of the world, digitalisation of manufacturing has greater potential to reduce CO2 emissions than in it does in other energy-intensive sectors such as agriculture, construction and mobility.

Technology for sustainable design and manufacturing is nothing new. Over the years, product design software companies have rolled out software that recommends more ecological materials or suggests other methods of decreasing a product’s environmental impact.

Developing that technology has been crucial, of course. But unfortunately, previous generations of this tech have been cumbersome to use, functioning outside of a product designer’s natural workflow, and required data or expertise not in a designer’s scope. As a result, the tools have not been widely adopted.

I’ve spent years working side by side with product designers and engineers, in various countries, to understand their design-andmake processes, their passion for creating products that positively impact peoples’ lives and disgust at seeing them in landfills, and the challenges involved in designing for sustainability. I’ve identified three common historical barriers.

Sustainability comes last. The sustainability challenge has often been outsourced to a lifecycle analysis expert, costing time and money that designers rarely have. Sustainability analysis has been done at the end of the product design process, if at all, after critical decisions have been made and a product’s impact is locked in.

Sustainability loses to other priorities, too. Designers frequently juggle too many contradictory priorities during product development. And sustainability has been a lower-priority criteria than cost.

Sustainability analysis requires big data. Calculating the total carbon footprint of a product typically requires a lot of data on use, transportation, end-of-life and more –data not typically accessible to and known by a designer.

Given how a designer’s decisions cascade through a product’s life, their impact on a product’s carbon footprint is critical and outsized. In fact, it’s estimated that over 80% of product-related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase.

Fully aware of this issue, at Autodesk, we are working hard to address the challenges that all our customers, and particularly the product designers among them, encounter when trying to use technology to reduce impact.

A NEW GENERATION

The next generation of sustainability tools needs to address the common barriers I’ve identified. Autodesk’s tools integrate sustainability insights directly into designers’ existing tools and workflows. A concept’s real-time sustainability score is available, like a fuel gauge on the dashboard, throughout the development process, giving designers the power to make informed sustainability choices at the earliest stages of their work.

In these new tools, carbon insights are provided, along with criteria such as materials costs, supply chain risks and compliance measures. These tools give designers the information they need to make better decisions, more quickly.

An example of this new approach is the Makersite add-on for Autodesk Fusion 360, which enables a designer to instantly get CO2 and materials cost assessments, calculated side by side for smart tradeoffs, without leaving their CAD/design environment. Lower-carbon materials are recommended to the designer, and no data entry is required in order to get a sustainability measure and actionable recommendations.

To reduce environmental impact on a large scale, we need many more accessible sustainability tools of the kind that I’ve described. With advanced technologies like cloud-powered artificial intelligence and machine learning, generative design, additive manufacturing and open access to platforms and data now in our toolboxes, we have a constellation of new capabilities to take on our global responsibilities, to overcome what has previously stymied us and help address the climate crisis.

It’s this generation’s mandate to effect change and to leverage technology to succeed in that challenge.

Sustainability is not just a nice-to-have.

It’s now mandatory. When it comes to designing new products, technology can help us deliver both a cleaner planet and economic growth, writes Autodesk’s Zoé Bezpalko

 Decisions made by a product designer have an impact on that product’s carbon footprint that is both critical and outsized

Ilike to romantically compare witnessing your first rocket launch to getting your first kiss. The warm glow on your skin; your toes curling into the ground as you feel the shake. The entire time your head is tilted back, eyes squinted closed but not quite all the way. Then there’s pause that comes with the will-they/won’t-they anticipation. Then, as sudden as the moment began, it’s all over.

Space launches are incredibly complicated: compared to traditional cargo aircraft, rockets require significantly more specialised ground infrastructure.

It takes a full 24 hours in advance of the expected launch window to move the rocket from storage to the launch site, to get it hooked up to the booster, and loaded with crew members, fuel and supplies.

Not included in this calculation are the gruelling years of testing, manufacturing and assembly that take place beforehand.

Yet, when launch day finally comes, so many things can go awry. Inclement weather, some asshole sailing his boat too close to the launch site, abnormal sensor readings, fuel not reaching the appropriate temperature, vertical wind shear.

Hell – even the clouds being too thick can completely cancel your date with space. With so much potential for things to go wrong, you start to wonder how any of the commercial space companies have ever been kissed?

LAUNCH SUSTAINABILITY

With the scrubbed launch this Spring of the 3D-printed rocket from Relativity, I began to pay a lot more attention to the sustainability of these launches – and not just the rockets themselves, but more so the supply chain and logistics involved.

A reusable rocket sounds great in theory, but a launch itself still has a horrible environmental impact.

For starters, I don’t think that there are

enough carbon offset credits to combat the 50 to 100 times increase in emissions generated from a single launch as compared to the average airplane ride.

In 2022, SpaceX launched 180 rockets. That’s 30,600 to 61,200 trees for those of you still following. To summarise: one airplane = 34 trees. One SpaceX launch = well over 30,000 trees.

Additionally, if the excessive carbon being dumped into the atmosphere isn’t enough to give you pause for thought, then there’s also this to bear in mind: atmospheric models from University College London have revealed that the soot particles left by these rockets retain up to 500 times more heat in our atmosphere than all other sources of soot combined.

TO THE MOON AND BACK

The hunger to experience the thrill of a launch first-hand is driving a hectic commercial space industry. In 2021, for example, we all watched the race to space among top-table billionaires, as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin battled it out.

For many of us living in a world ravaged by a life-threatening pandemic, emotions ranged from wonderment and awe to disbelief and even anger.

Most of us will never have the luxury of leaving this blue marble behind when it literally gets too hot to stick around.

So what will it take to get this new space industry to pay attention to its environmental impact? A specialised tech-bro tax credit incentive? An updated green-er deal? Reusable rockets that are somehow cheaper than the current estimated low, low price of $67 million?

There’s a lot that new space can learn from the commercial airline industry when it comes to tackling the challenge that is sustainability.

Tactics might include swapping to more sustainable fuels; creating new engines that reduce emissions, noise and fuel

burn; and funding grant programmes to analyse, review and track emissions, energy efficiencies, operational efficiency, and climate impact (to name a few).

INTENTIONAL CHOICES

I understand how incredibly challenging it can be to bake sustainability into a product that has been almost a decade in the making.

But in the emerging area of rocket logistics, the industry could be more sustainable and reduce environmental impact for every launch by making stronger, intentional investments in areas like equipment procurement, basing, international diplomacy and more efficiently trained and skilled personnel. Becoming more efficient at handling takeoff and landing – where most rockets burn the greatest amount of fuel – can only help us in the long run.

Sustainability isn’t an easy ask for any country, industry or large rocket manufacturer. But all I’m asking is for some of them to try.

I know that it won’t be easy and that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I leave you with my mother’s sage advice: Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you get to the charming part.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: SJ is a metal additive engineer aka THEE Hottie of Metal Printing. SJ’s work involves providing additive manufacturing solutions and #3dprinting of metal parts to help create a decarbonised world.

Rocket launches are unquestionably thrilling. But with their frequency increasing in this new space age, our columnist SJ is wondering about the negative impact they have on the planet they leave in their wake

Most of us will never have the luxury of leaving this blue marble behind when it literally gets too hot on this planet to stick around. So what will it take to get the space industry to pay attention to its environmental impact?

VISUAL DESIGN GUIDE YANMAR AUTONOMOUS VINEYARD SPRAYER

Labour shortages, climate-change impacts and sustainability pressures could make Yanmar’s YV01 spraying robot a valuable member of the team for growers looking to get a productivity boost from autonomous equipment

EFFICIENT SPRAYING

At the heart of the YV01 is a 200-litre tank along with electrostatic spraying technology that ensure that all surfaces of a plant are treated efficiently and economically, with less waste and environmental impact

ADAPTIVE AGILITY

The robot easily navigates steep slopes and narrow vineyard alleys in all weather conditions. Its tracks are capable of climbing muddy 45-degree slopes without compacting and damaging the soil

BUILT-IN SMARTNESS

Sensors and aerials constantly monitor and feedback data to operators in real time, including GPS positioning, allowing remote monitoring from any location

PORTABILITY

Weighing in at 1 tonne, the robot can be transported on a small truck or trailer typical of the kind that most winegrowers already own

USER-LED DEVELOPMENT

Japanese company Yanmar has established an office in Épernay, a key town in the Champagne region of France, in order to better facilitate feedback from local premium wine makers and include their suggestions in its design process

STATELY PROGRESS

The efficient two-cylinder gasoline engine that powers the YV01 is quieter than traditional spraying machines and capable of 4 km/h, allowing it to work at a stately pace around the clock

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The robot is expected to come with a price tag of around $70,000 to $150,000

www.yanmar.com

POWER

» Electric cars are now a common sight on UK roads, but a goods vehicle powered by electricity is a far rarer beast. Stephen Holmes visits Tevva, a start-up looking to extend the capabilities of electrified trucks with the help of hydrogen

There are over half a million goods vehicles on the road in the UK. The vast majority of them (some 98.8%) rely on diesel to make deliveries, collect household waste, transport fuel and so on. So it’s pretty shocking to consider that in the transportation sector, freight trucks emit more carbon dioxide than aviation and maritime combined.

And despite the uptake in electric passenger vehicles, trucks and lorries have so far proved immune to the trend. As of 2021, only 520 battery-electric trucks and lorries were registered in the UK.

That’s a big problem. On a worldwide basis, a passenger car is driven, on average, just one to two hours per day.

RANGER

In the case of electric vehicles (EVs), that leaves many of them with a store of power left over in their batteries and a 22-hour window of opportunity to recharge.

But trucks are a different proposition entirely, according to Tevva CEO Asher Bennett. For a start, a truck typically heads out on each shift with around eight or more hours of work ahead of it. At the same time, there is no specific range for a fully charged battery. So much depends on the workload ahead. Variables are far more diverse than those for a passenger car.

They include the distances involved, the terrain to be navigated, the individual operator’s driving style and the loads to be carried. These all vary hugely from delivery truck to delivery truck, and from day to day. And that’s

before you even consider any additional energy needs, such as refrigeration for chilled goods in transit or garbage compacting capabilities.

“No fleet manager will send out a truck in the morning if it’s not guaranteed to complete its day, whatever that day is,” says Bennett.

While EVs are often used on shorter routes, the issue of variability overrides one of the biggest advantages of an electric truck, which is that miles using cheap grid electricity are dramatically less costly than miles using diesel.

Tevva’s company mission, explains Bennett, is to replace diesel trucks – and not just those working shorter, repetitive routes and carrying predictable loads.

Tevva is leading the charge when it comes to getting electrified trucks on the road

At the heart of this mission is hydrogen. By adding a hydrogen fuel cell system to its battery-electric HGV design, Tevva can deliver zero-emission vehicles from its Tilbury, Essex facility that will work for most fleet operators across various sectors. The fuel cell system tops up the battery, extending the vehicle’s range and allowing it to carry heavier loads over longer distances.

According to Bennett, the current battery technology on a Tevva truck would cover 80% and 90% of users’ needs. “Most days, you won’t need anything more than that. But getting back to base ‘on average’ is not good enough!” he says. “So we back it up with the hydrogen fuel system.”

CALL FOR BACK-UP

The idea first came to Bennett beneath the ocean waves. A stint in the Israeli Navy means that his first EV was a submarine, powered by an electric motor, with a huge bank of batteries that could be recharged by onboard diesel generators.

In the case of Tevva, it’s the hydrogen system that acts as back-up, performing as a range extender or REX.

“Because it’s there, [companies] can send this truck out

without worry,” says Bennett. Most days, they won’t need to use the hydrogen, but any day on which they do – like a trip to the maintenance depot, or relocating trucks for busy Christmas deliveries – then hydrogen will be the enabler of all those cheap miles already provided by the battery. “It really gets the economics going!”

A key advantage of hydrogen is its energy density over a lithium-ion battery. A 100 kg tank has the effective energy of 600 kg of battery. “And that’s about the battery [weight] we put on this truck. So, by adding one cylinder, we’ve doubled the amount of energy in this truck; two cylinders, tripled. We go for three – quadrupled.”

To manage this to its highest efficiency, Tevva has designed and built its own software, electronic management systems and batteries.

Its Predictive Range Extender Management System (PREMS) software is used to make a prediction of the energy needs of a truck on a given day. All the variables that normally count against an EV truck are fed into the first part of the equation to determine how much additional energy from the hydrogen will be needed to augment the battery power.

“The second part of the algorithm is, now that I know that we need to augment 60 kilowatt hours, let’s decide where it’s most beneficial and optimised to do so, not just wait till 3pm, end of day,” explains Bennett. The algorithm might opt to turn the hydrogen fuel cell on earlier in the day, but at half power, which gives 22% more efficiency than running at full power.

Such measures can lengthen the life of the fuel cell stack, or it can be used tactically; for example, when the battery is under stress from climbing a steep hill at high speed when fully loaded.

All of this is handled over the cloud, not by the driver, and as more Tevva trucks take to the road and feed back more data, the better the optimisation will become.

HYDROGEN IN, WATER OUT

The development of Tevva’s hydrogen-electric 7.5-ton model continues. A road-going prototype fitted with three hydrogen tanks recently covered more than 1,000km (approximately 620 miles) on a test run, in which it was driven from Tevva’s headquarters in Essex to the Scottish border on a single charge.

Under development for two years, much of the work involved testing and developing systems for the fuel cell technologies. Tevva REX engineer, Ryan Clark, explains that the team opted for supplier Loop Energy, a Canadian company. “They were best in terms not only of the engineering factors, like the efficiency and ease it took to integrate and fit the cabin, but also the commercial factors. They’ve been really good at supporting us, helping us with the design.”

Currently, there are three hydrogen storage tanks mounted behind the cabin, although this has been designed to be versatile, to accommodate future developments and provide modularity. “I think there is scope to reduce it to two in the future, because we might be getting batteries with more rounded capacity. And that’s all up in the air at the minute,” says Clark. Should an owner have access to an abundance of cheap hydrogen, the truck is capable of running entirely on that fuel. It’s not the most effective way to run a Tevva Truck, according to the team, but it highlights the versatility that could give these trucks wider appeal as energy and fuel markets continue to be volatile.

A closer look at the powertrain and systems that drive Tevva’s trucks

‘‘ It’s a different game to designing a passenger car. A truck needs to do the job, it needs to be good. It’s not an emotional decision

Tevva’s current line of all-electric trucks, meanwhile, is already hard at work at companies such as parcel delivery giant UPS, a Tevva customer for around three years now.

The powertrain and systems of these vehicles have been developed in-house, including the batteries and the electronic ‘brains’ behind the management technology that is already feeding back valuable information to R&D.

Designing its own battery has been a key challenge for Tevva. While the team could buy batteries from a supplier, that would leave the company hostage to changes in price, battery technology and electronics specifications. Instead, they are assembled in-house on the company’s own assembly line, giving it full control.

The single-geared motor is actually two units mounted on a single shaft. Co-developed with a sister company based in Newcastle, it offers a redundancy safety advantage, as well as providing swift yet silent acceleration. Should one motor fail, the driver can continue a few miles further on the second motor, until they find a safe place to stop.

Each truck features five major control units, all developed by Tevva to manage vehicle control, the battery management system, power distribution, telematics, and on the hydrogen version, an additional unit for the fuel cell system.

JOINING THE DOTS

All of this technology needs to be fitted together and positioned on a donor chassis and cab that is known as a ‘Glider’. This comes from a supplier that also produces the same parts for a widely used diesel-powered variant.

Working on another company’s platform comes with some frustrations, says Stephan Engelbrecht, Tevva principal engineering manager for concepts. But, he adds, it makes it easier to avoid the many pitfalls of developing a product of this complexity and scale.

“What we’ve done makes sense. Too many companies fail at the first hurdle of trying to produce their first ground-up vehicle. And you’ll fail on something trivial, which has nothing to do with the EV side of it.”

While the Glider has its limitations, these are issues that the design and engineering teams have found smart ways to work around.

A lot of that effort has been managed in CAD. Tevva’s initial designs were built in Solidworks, but with the scale of the project and team growing in size, the decision was made to move to Dassault Systèmes’ Catia.

The benefits were instantaneous, says Engelbrecht, giving the team at Tevva the ability to load up a model of the entire vehicle quickly and work in context without encountering problems.

Tevva trucks are assembled at the company’s facility in Tilbury, Essex

‘‘

I think that something that’s really helped in our industry is being able to turn things around quickly using onsite 3D printers ’’

“To me, that’s very important, because there’s so much effort downstream, trying to get everything to fit together. Because if a designer hasn’t looked at these systems when he was designing whatever he’s doing, it can become fairly problematic in big organisations,” he says.

“So the fact that it is so good at handling big chunks of data means collaborative design just [happens]. It’s not just a word. Everyone can work on live data without falling over each other.”

Previously, the team had issues taking the supplier’s Catia models of the Glider and then having to translate them into Solidworks. Along the way, they would sometimes lose some details.

Now that they have moved to native Catia imports, Engelbrecht says, it’s easier to perform high-level investigations of changes to future Glider designs, or changes to systems, and explore what the design team can do going forward in terms of maintaining fast development times.

There is still a large element of physical prototyping, mostly to quality-assure OEM parts against CAD models and to ensure that all the necessary systems and components fit into place.

“Our first step usually is to 3D print a bracket to mount something in place,” says Engelbrecht. “I think something that’s really helped us in our industry, being able to turn things around quickly using onsite 3D

printers and not having to wait for a supplier.”

Five small desktop units have been replaced with a Stratasys F170 FDM system, or “one big, proper printer to do the job”, laughs Engelbrecht.

His advice to other companies? “Get something proper that works every time. You can’t have something that requires someone to re-engineer the thing every five minutes.”

LIKE THE WIND

Upgrading the Glider for EV meant the need for further aerodynamic surfaces, where these could be added. Engelbrecht explains that the elements that the team have changed do make a difference, but the team’s members also had to be careful not to make more work for themselves and create downstream maintenance headaches.

It’s a case of not changing anything that could make life difficult further down the road, according Engelbrecht. “Door handles are difficult, so don’t go messing with doors and closures! Exterior mirrors are extremely difficult, unless you’re going to replace them with a lowdrag camera,” he says. “But there are things we can do. We can improve how the air wraps around the front. We can improve what happens at the rear.”

Compared to the passenger vehicles that some members of the team had previously worked on, where floors are nearly always sealed and aerodynamic, freight vehicles have some large surfaces and underside scoops that create drag. “It should have been obvious. It took us sending a few guys to a wind tunnel to go and work out that all we needed to do was add some porosity and a way for the air to get out,” says Engelbrecht.

“It’s a different game to designing for a passenger car,” he adds. “Also, for a passenger car, there’s so much of it that doesn’t actually need to be a good product. You just need to tell a good story and sell it to some customer. It’s more of an emotional purchase than a practical purchase. When it comes to a truck, it needs to do the job on paper, it needs to be good. It’s not an emotional decision.”

Production at Tevva’s headquarters is conservatively ramping up, with staff getting to grips with installing miles of wiring looms, coolant tubes and black-boxed battery housings. Tevva is targeting production of 3,500 trucks each year. With the majority set for UK customers, it will greatly increase the number of EV goods vehicles on the road.

From there, production will continue to scale, the company hopes. And it will optimise both its product and its manufacturing process as it goes, with manufacturing sites set to open closer to other target markets.

It’s an exciting time for EVs overall. As more of Tevva’s vehicles take to the road, there’s every chance that trucks running on renewables will deliver the biggest impact of all. www.tevva.com

● 1 Ryan Clark and colleagues arrive at the Scottish border after a single-charge test run

● 2 Assembling Tevva trucks involves connecting miles of cabling and coolant lines

● 3 Tevva CEO Asher Bennett, pictured at his company’s Essex headquarters

BUILT TO LAST

Wingback is turning its back on throw-away culture, in favour of creating products that last for generations. Stephen Holmes meets the team adding digital design touches to the creation of traditional leather and metal accessories

Sat in Wingback’s London headquarters, Alasdair MacLaine pulls his great-grandad’s brass mechanical screwdriver from his pocket and admires it.

The screwdriver’s aged brass body is standing up well to its years in service. Not that it’s used much today, given the new workshop that MacLaine has at his disposal, replete with tools, 3D printer, leather-working benches and photography area.

Situated at OXO Tower Wharf on London’s South Bank, the workshop is part of Wingback’s design studio and showroom. The iconic art deco building in which it is located is as old as the screwdriver itself, but also provides a modern home for an exciting list of young hardware companies.

The idea of blending of traditional materials and new ideas is completely in step with the ethos behind Wingback itself. As a producer of leather goods, accessories and stationery, every product is designed to last a lifetime, and then some.

The inspiration for its stationery line came directly from that inherited screwdriver, but the company’s starting point can be traced back to founder and design director MacLaine’s time working at Dyson, in its new product innovation department. There, he was given carte blanche to come up with new concepts, and an extensive R&D budget.

that I particularly liked, so I decided to make my own.”

Having laser-cut and hand-stitched the prototype cardholder, MacLaine took it into work to show some of his colleagues, who immediately wanted one.

“I bought a little [leather] hide from a cobbler and made a few of them, and then it clicked: that’s the product that should be launched, it’s so simple.”

MARRYING TRADITION AND MODERN TECH

The product was further refined, marrying the tradition of leather working and saddle stitching with modern laser cutting engraving to make the stitching process more exact and efficient versus manual punching. From there, it was offered up to the crowdfunding gods on Kickstarter. Things went far better than expected, raising around £21k in the campaign’s launch month.

Quickly, a single toe in the water on Kickstarter became a winter spent fulfilling launch orders, designing a website, setting up a Shopify account, adding product photography and designing a full range of products.

“It was hard work,” says MacLaine, “trudging down to the shed in mid-December, when it was snowing outside, just to go clean up leather and stitch stuff up. But it was good fun!”

Fast forward a few years and Wingback has expanded its range of leather goods, but the itch to design more technical products returned, and MacLaine began to

accurately produce the moving parts.

MacLaine says another of the Form 3 resins, Clear, will be useful as mechanisms continue to develop and grow more complex, allowing him to see what’s going on inside and remedy any design issues.

The Formlabs Flexible resins are used for gasket designs, which form part of Wingback’s belt-and-braces approach to long-lasting, functional design – such as the double seals on the lid and neck of its flasks, promising an end to leaks and drips.

disposable pens and cheap wallets and contribute greatly to the 8 million tons of plastic waste dumped in our oceans every year.

VALUABLE FEEDBACK

While product details are honed by the designers, using crowdfunding for initial launches has enabled Wingback to remain lean while it gauges likely demand. Decisions such as determining a coating finish for a new black pocket flask are made by the team, but the product’s popularity and feedback from a Kickstarter run often influences what eventually appears as a full production run.

The company also takes care to develop limited edition models that include etched artwork. “It’s really nice to work with artists, because we’re promoting them, they’re promoting us, and you end up with a collaborative product.”

MacLaine adds that, for him, this works better than the current trend for investing heavily in influencers to spread marketing around social media.

Also off the list are discounted items. “We’ve got a policy not to hold sales as a business,” he says. “I think sales are quite devaluing for brands, and it’s a pretty slippery slope. And also, we charge an honest price for the products we’re selling. We make a little bit of money on them, but they cost an awful lot to make, hence the price

point. So any kind of discounting I feel kind of cheapens the product a little bit.”

This all falls into the idea that, if a product lasts as long as it is designed to, not only will it represent better value for the user and have less environmental impact, but also it will also take on more meaning.

“The kind of product we’re making is one that you hope transcends beyond functional beautiful products and becomes one of those things you have an emotional connection to over time,” explains MacLaine, still holding his great-grandad’s screwdriver, over a century on from when it was made.

With a product range built with the same solidity, the next 100 years shouldn’t be a problem. www.wingback.co.uk

●

● 3 Attention to detail is a hallmark of Wingback products

●

● 1 The Wingback Mechanical Pencil is designed to last for decades

2 Wingback’s Alasdair MacLaine hard at work on his next design

4 3D printers from Formlabs play an important role in Wingback’s design processes

The millennia it takes to form a natural wonder are thrown into sharp focus when huge swathes of it can be damaged or destroyed in only a few weeks.

This is sadly true of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where elevated sea water temperatures are causing unprecedented damage, including mass coral bleaching events like the one that killed between 30% and 50% of the reef’s coral in 2016 and 2017.

Bleaching occurs when environmental stressors, even a water temperature rise of just 1°C, cause corals to expel symbiotic algae living inside them, turning the corals white and often killing them.

Over the last 30 years, mass bleaching events have grown in frequency and severity, leaving biologists battling to restore coral and save their delicate ecosystems.

One method is transplanting coral from existing colonies, but it can take as long as 10 years for them to grow their own adult-sized skeletons, requiring a huge amount of manual tending and cultivating.

Seeking a better means of repopulating the reefs, Australian coral biologist Dr Taryn Foster has developed a new, large-scale method that uses the latest digital tools in conjunction with traditional masonry manufacturing.

Leaning on knowledge gained from her family’s business, which makes masonry products for the construction industry, Foster founded the company Coral

ENGINEERING

Maker, in order to scale restoration efforts in the same way as you might scale manufacturing.

Coral Maker’s method aims to speed up restoration by mass producing new limestone skeletons and grafting live coral onto them. When deployed in the ocean, the groupings of coral on the structure join up and fuse, coating the manufactured skeletons much faster and giving them the potential to reach adult size within 12-18 months.

PRO BONO SUPPORT

Work on this method began while Foster was working at the California Academy of Sciences on a Fulbright Fellowship. With Coral Maker founded, Foster joined the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network residency.

Through pro bono support from the Autodesk Foundation, Autodesk employees located across North America and the UK assisted Coral Maker on the design, engineering, advanced manufacturing and robotic automation capabilities needed to help scale production.

“Taryn comes up with these great ideas and she sketches them down, but she doesn’t know how to translate that sketch into a physical product. And that’s kind of where we came in,” says Rob Bowerman, an Autodesk principal technology consultant based in its Technology Centre in Birmingham, UK.

“We would use Fusion 360 to turn that sketch into a physical model, and then as soon as we have that physical model, she could get a real feel for what that would look

‘‘

The process is robust. It may be crude in its method, but it gives us the rate of success we need to try and solve this problem ’’

ENGINEERING NEW GROWTH

The struggle to repopulate Australia’s damaged coral reefs with new growth is too great for manual work alone. Stephen Holmes speaks to the team at Coral Maker about how it is using product development and manufacturing know-how to scale up the fight

like, how that would work, how she would interact with that in the water, how the seeding would work, and how we could use things like robotics to automate the seeding and assembly of the skeletons.”

With the global Covid pandemic forcing Foster to leave San Francisco and return to Australia, the team was forced to work across multiple time zones. “It was almost impossible for us all to be on a call at one point, so throughout this whole project, we’ve had to collaborate remotely,” says Bowerman.

“Fusion has been amazing for that, because it’s enabled us to have this one location where we can all work on the same design data. We can all have input to the same design, but we can also have a design up on screen, we can all be commenting on it, we can be saying we want things to be changed, we can do those changes in real time and get Taryn’s feedback straight away.”

If the whole team can’t be in a meeting at the same time, he adds, “we can make some changes, she can then see the changes have happened, review the design, make comments and we can come back to it at a later date.”

ACCELERATED GROWTH

The dome-shaped skeleton, with square sockets in which to dock coral seed plugs, appears quite simple, but a lot of design iteration has gone into devising this optimal shape.

A key factor is that it enables the accelerated growth of the coral, which would naturally arrive at this domed form anyway. Furthermore, this skeleton can be quickly and cheaply produced using the dry-stone casting process.

“It’s a process that is robust. It’s fairly crude in its method, but it’s certainly able to give us the rate that would be needed to try and solve this problem,” says Bowerman.

Initial prototypes could be shared as files to be 3D printed, allowing the Australian team to test them for size and handling them underwater. Once the form had been tested, back in Birmingham, the team began to cut the

tools for mass producing the skeleton using its array of 5-axis CNC machines.

Bowerman explains that the UK team is not only making prototypes, but also proving out the manufacturing process, so that when the skeletons go into production, the design can be given to a local manufacturer and it’s ready to go.

“We know there are no kinks in it, and we can even get to the point where we have the code that can run on that local manufacturer’s machine, so we know that they’re going to get a like-for-like part of what’s already been tested over here in the UK. We’re nurturing and incubating that technology here, and then we can deploy it to wherever she is locally.”

With the volumes of coral needing to be seeded already daunting, and with ocean temperatures continuing to rise, local production to ensure successful deployment of new coral will be key. As water temperatures continue to change, reef regeneration may need to be relocated from the tropics to cooler high latitude ‘fringe’ reefs. To accomplish that effectively, reef restoration needs to be mobilised as a bigger, more organised effort.

While the versatility of the design allows skeletons to be built using local aggregates, or in different shapes to better aid different species of coral, the need for millions or potentially tens of millions of structures per year has seen the team having to look further at the manufacturing process.

To overcome the challenge, Coral Maker wants to automate coral propagation using robotics and artificial intelligence for onsite deployment, with capabilities able to work collaboratively with humans and also freeing them up to do more complex work.

With many other ecological challenges to be tackled, the technology that allows designers and engineers around the world to work together to develop solutions at scale might just be the seed that helps nature regenerate elsewhere. www.coralmaker.org

The dome-shaped skeletons in which coral seed plugs will be placed

Princess by Day, Superhero by Night: Limbitless Solutions Empowers Kids With Custom Bionic Arms

By: Heather Miller

Advanced prosthetic solutions for children with limb differences are often difficult to find and expensive to purchase. But Limbitless Solutions is transforming the possibilities with its goal to create “3D hope.”

Limbitless Solutions is a non-profit organization based at the University of Central Florida where research staff, affiliated faculty, and more than 50 students are working to transform what bionics for children will look like in the future. In this case, it’s custom, 3D printed bionic arms with built-in electronics.

“Limb difference is not anything that is a lack, and it’s not something that should hold anyone back,” says Mrudula Peddinti, Branding Director at Limbitless Solutions. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. The prosthetic helps empower the

Testing-bionic-arm

child to see that within themselves and achieve their future dreams and goals.”

“We put together a team that brings together all these different perspectives to see how we could solve a new problem,” says Albert Manero, Ph.D., President and Co-founder of Limbitless Solutions. “Whether it’s the cost or the physical weight of the device, children have really struggled to get good outcomes with advanced prosthetics. We learned pretty early on that children want their bionic arms to express part of their identity.”

For kids, the functional aspect of a new prosthetic is already life changing. But making it a true extension of themselves with a focus on inclusivity is just as important. As soon as a child gets approved for a clinical trial, they can access Limbitless’ online design portal to design their own arms. Each child eventually receives two

See how Limbitless Solutions is working to transform what bionics for children will look like in the future with the help of Autodesk Fusion 360.

interchangeable custom arms.

“We always like to say if they want to be a superhero in the morning, they can, and if they want to switch and be a princess in the evening, they can do that,” Peddinti continues.

Designing custom bionic arms

From part design to electronics to CAM, Limbitless Solutions team uses Autodesk Fusion 360. “My favourite part about Fusion 360 is that it is an all-inone software. You have your electronics, your design, your CAM all in one place, and it’s so easy to use,” says Limbitless Solutions co-founder John Sparkman.

According to Sparkman, the electronics design

environment within Fusion 360 allows them to have both their schematic and board files open at the same time so they can seamlessly update with any changes.

Collaboration is also a crucial component, as approximately 50 students from all different majors work on the projects each semester. “If I start off on a project, another student might finish it off using CAM and by creating the toolpaths,” says Julia Sheiber, engineering scholar UCF mechanical engineering student. “We’re able to send the files very easily through the cloud and update things which makes the process very collaborative and easy to navigate.”

Scan

Welearned prettyearlyon thatchildren wanttheir bionicarmsto expresspartof theiridentity

AlbertManero, Limbitless

BLOWN AWAY

Lontra’s LP2

Blade Blower boasts impressive sustainability credentials

AWAY

All the pieces are coming together,” says Steve Lindsey, CEO of Lontra, with evident pride and satisfaction. After years of hard work, Lontra is now entering a new phase of its journey in producing energy-efficient rotational industrial equipment, working towards achieving sustainable development and reducing the environmental impact of industrial processes.

The last time DEVELOP3D caught up with Lindsey was back in late 2017 (www.tinyurl.com/D3DLontra), when he talked us through his invention of a new kind of energy-efficient positive displacement air compression technology.

Since then, things have moved on considerably. In April, one of the largest pieces of the picture fell into place, when the company’s brand-new, £17 million manufacturing centre in Doncaster, UK, began production of its flagship product, the LP2 Blade Blower.

Built from scratch with the help of a £7 million grant and loan package from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, combined with approximately £10 million of private-sector match-funding from Lontra, this is a state-of-the-art smart factory.

From the electric vehicle (EV) charging points outside to the smart lighting inside, every effort has been made to ensure that the factory is as sustainable as possible. Its 60,000 square feet of floor space is home to many millions of pounds’ worth of machinery, all connected using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Eventually, the level of automation planned here will support lights-out manufacturing, with machines running through the night, with little to no human intervention required.

BLOW BY BLOW

The LP2 Blade Blower can also boast some pretty impressive sustainability credentials itself. Heavy industry depends on air compressors to deliver power to manufacturing lines, drive furnaces and convey materials. They are used for pneumatically conveying granules in cement factories and crumbs in biscuit factories, for example, as well as for aeration in water and wastewater treatment facilities.

But all that blowing comes at a heavy cost to the environment. Compressors account for a staggering 10% of Europe’s industrial electricity use and as much as 40% in some plants. In wastewater treatment, 70% of total energy used is for blowers. In total, that equates to more than 10TWh (Terawatt-hours) of electricity every year and some 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Independent trials of the LP2, by contrast, have found it capable of offering energy savings of up to 34% when evaluated against comparable market-leading alternatives, so the potential advantages for buyers are huge. Plus, according to Lindsey, this new compressor is also built

for reliability and longevity; intensive testing and analysis have demonstrated results of more than 80,000 continuous operating hours without the need for repairs.

TOOLED UP FOR GROWTH

Software is another important piece of the picture, and an area in which Lontra gets a lot of valuable help and advice from PTC reseller Inneo. Lindsey says that using a modern 3D CAD system, in the form of PTC Creo, was critical to achieving the LP2 Blade Blower’s complex geometry.

Meanwhile, Creo add-ons for FEA (finite element analysis) and behavioural modelling in particular have greatly assisted in achieving the necessary stability and distortion requirements that make the LP2 Blade Blower so energy-efficient.

Where simultaneous optimisation of mechanical and thermodynamic performance is required, data from PTC Creo feeds directly into BladeSim, a software suite built in-house at Lontra for the virtual prototyping of positive displacement compressors, vacuum pumps and their ancillaries. As well as improvements to compression, internal leakage and heat transfer, these tools tune silencers and ancillaries for optimisation of the complete system.

Another key element of the portfolio is Windchill, PTC’s product lifecycle management (PLM) suite, which makes a big difference to Lonta’s efficiency and sustainability, by saving not only time but also waste.

Windchill ensures that the company’s record of the materials and components used in its products are kept up to date, helping to capture learning from the design and development process, as well as reducing errors, scrap and wastage on the factory floor.

“Both of our sites have access to Windchill, and our team also works remotely – designers, purchasing, manufacturing engineers, CNC, assembly, and quality,” says Lindsey. “These tools ensure that everybody is working off the most up-to-date data. In the future, we plan to provide certain suppliers with access to this data too.”

NEXT SMART STEPS

Digital technology at the heart of the next exciting stages of Lontra’s expansion, bringing to life all the benefits of the connectivity built into the LP2’s design, with its 25-plus internal smart sensors. This work will be overseen by Lontra Digital, a new arm of the business, responsible for the design and development of an app that will enable the company and its customers to monitor units once they’re hard at work in factories and water treatment facilities.

“For context, almost every factory will have a maintenance person or team, whose job it is to keep machines running. They spend their days in and around those machines and, regardless of whether an alarm has been triggered or not, they can tell when something that

Wheel design is a vital aspect of a car’s overall look, but developing wheels can be costly. Stephen Holmes speaks to Lacks Enterprises about its award-winning solution for Toyota, which combines strong aesthetics with fuel efficiency

At Lontra, a digital thread is now in place that will help this sustainable company deliver new, energy-efficient products to customers seeking to curb their carbon footprint

doesn’t sound right or is running hot, signalling that there may be a potential problem,” Lindsey explains.

However, that kind of experience is in short supply and dwindling fast as older members of the workforce retire. And even in facilities that have these people on staff, it’s often the case that their expertise could be put to better use.

“Now, thanks to data collection and machine learning, instead of the need for full-time expertise on-site, the units can be monitored remotely from one centralised location,” Lindsey explains. In this way, Lontra Digital will help to increase reliability and reduce downtime for customers.

This monitoring capability is built on a cloud-based, proprietary IoT platform, designed from the ground up with data and network security treated as a priority.

Blowers will be connected via a private cellular network to Lontra’s cloud, with no networking infrastructure or capability required of customers, because Lontra manages the machine connectivity.

Data will be uploaded in real-time from the LP2’s sensors and then made available to customers for analysis, download and/or integration via a cloud-based portal. Numerous connectivity and control options are available, encompassing smartphone and tablet apps to transitional industrial protocols such as Modbus and Ethernet/IP. Customers will get secure, real-time remote support via the managed cellular connection on request, Lindsey promises, as well as fast development and turnaround of new features and fixes.

“The LP2 Version 1 is just the starting point,” he says. “With the secure platform foundations in place, upcoming iterations will focus on features such as machine interconnectivity with advanced control strategies, along with improved anomaly detection powered by machine learning models.”

A DIGITAL THREAD

In effect, what Lindsey is describing is a digital thread - a continuous, seamless strand of data that connects each stage of a product’s lifecycle, from design through to manufacture and onwards to maintenance and repair. At all these stages in the lifetime of the LP2, says Lindsey, a digital twin of each and every blower is maintained, delivering insights and driving optimisations that are passed on to the customer in the form of a more efficient machine, more predictable maintenance cycles and, ultimately, increased value from their investment.

What Lindsey hopes to do, he says, is bring a userfriendly, modern, consumer-like experience to the industrial space. “Things like Amazon one-click are just not seen in the manufacturing world. That needs to change,” he says.

The hard work of getting all these pieces into place directly supports that vision, he adds. “The power of all this lies in our ability to start completely from scratch and say, ‘Okay, if you were to redesign the industrial environment with a fresh pair of eyes, how would you do it?’ That’s why, for Lontra Digital, we’ve brought in people who are not from the industrial arena. They’ve come from developing mobile apps for fintech, for example. Because that’s the kind of fresh thinking that is needed here and the core underlying technology is absolutely key to that.”

This fresh thinking and core underlying technology will be a launchpad for new products and approaches as Lontra grows and expands, he says. He’s already thinking about compression at different levels. The LP2, for example, is low pressure, but there are plenty of applications out there that require higher air pressure, as well as vacuum applications. Lontra has already patented its idea for a non-return valve, which would be a valuable addition to its product line-up. Finally, Lindsey is also considering refrigerants for heat pumps that could bring the same Lontra efficiency to another class of products entirely.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for us,” he says. “Weaving all these pieces together is going to enable us to do some amazing things.”

Watch this space. ww.lontra.co.uk

(Above) Hard at work creating industrial designs in PTC Creo (Below) A look inside the Lontra LP2 Blade Blower

PACKAGING FOR

ackaging has traditionally been an afterthought in product design, pushed to the back of corporate minds in favour of more cost-effective production processes and getting new launches to market faster.

Slowly this attitude is changing, with designers realising the importance of packaging. Companies are investing time, consideration and money into making important decisions about packaging right at the start of development processes.

For Greg Burton, design manager at large packaging specialists Lesters Packaging, the wake-up call has been a long time coming. “I know you’d expect me to say this, but packaging really is a critical part of the design cycle for so many reasons,” he says.

“It’s the first interaction a customer has with your product, and depending on its specific use, can deliver different advantages.”

In a retail environment, for example, packaging shapes, contours and innovations differentiate products and function as a way of catching the consumer’s eye, alongside print and logos. The growth of online shopping, meanwhile, has given it added importance.

Burton highlights a brand that has long paid particular attention to its packaging. “Apple, unsurprisingly, is particularly strong in an e-commerce situation,” he says.

“The sale has been made, so the main factor here is to protect the product and provide an unboxing experience that feels good.”

However, an issue often overlooked when designing a product is the stage at which a product leaves a manufacturing site. If packaging can be tweaked to fit standard sizes for UK or European trailers and shipping containers, then the ability to get greater cost efficiencies and in turn ecological benefits are unlocked.

CUTTING CORNERS

Burton has instilled a culture of ‘innovate smarter and challenge quicker’ at Lesters, where his team is designing packaging solutions for clients involved in the automotive, cycling, food, pharma and retail sectors.

The supply chain is complex, he explains, and there are often bigger savings to be made “around the box rather than in the box”, which demands closer collaboration with design engineers at the earliest possible point.

“We look differently at packaging to engineers and machine builders and can work jointly to give them access to innovative materials and technologies that allow them to meet their expectations and those of their customers,” says Burton.

“A really good example of how we do things differently is our collaborative work with a leading UK university to bring new technology to the commercial marketplace,

The packaging sector is due a big wake-up call. DEVELOP3D speaks to Lesters Packaging about the importance of sustainability and why it is now a key consideration in the development of its products

We look at packaging differently from engineers and can work jointly to give them access to innovative materials and technologies ’’

THE PLANET

delivering free of charge health checks and our time and motion studies on how long current lines take to pack products.”

Proof is in the proverbial pudding, and Lesters has numerous case studies demonstrating how it has created new solutions for its rapidly growing customer base.

One of the most recent has involved redesigning the complete packaging range for an electric car charging company. With sales for EVs going through the roof, the client has seen a massive increase in demand for its products, yet existing packaging failed to keep up with the growth of the brand.

Burton and his team applied their expertise to deliver a solution that was optimised for courier delivery, removing all plastic from the equation and upgrading the ‘opening’ experience.

“We took an approach through innovation that other packaging companies may have shied away from, creating a singular box that had all the fixtures and fittings attached,” says Burton.

This reduced the number of packaging SKUs from 4-plus to just one, he explains. It is also an easier solution to pack, which fits with the customer’s limited space for assembly, protects the product through the supply chain and fits well on a UK standard pallet.

“Furthermore, it is a fully sustainable corrugated solution that has no plastic, can go through any kerbside

recycling worldwide and is scalable for future product development with the applied design principles. In short, it’s a game-changer,” he adds.

ALL WRAPPED UP

In future, design engineers will have to be mindful of new innovations gradually emerging in the marketplace. The main thrust will be around further sustainable packaging, and this will be at the forefront of most company agendas as the business world continues to strive for transparency around the impact of certain materials on the environment.

Developments will include materials such as Mycelium, a completely organic, farm-grown material made from the roots of a mushroom and capable of replacing elements like polystyrene, as well as starch-based foams and cellulose shrink-wrapping. All of these will slowly change the way customers think about their packaging.

So what is the one bit of advice that Burton would offer design engineers? His answer is as straightforward as it gets: “It’s simple: Keep packaging in mind throughout the design process. Sometimes the reduction of a couple of millimetres in one length can optimise a product so it can travel on standard shipping routes.”

The future for packaging is better for everyone, however you box it up.

www.lesterspackaging.co.uk

● 1 Cardboard packaging rolls off the production line at Lesters

● 2 Lesters team members consider packaging for EV charging technology

BRIGHT SPARK

The automotive market is already seeing huge growth in electric vehicles (EVs). The UK market alone grew by over 800% between 2016 and 2022, and is expected to be the driving force behind new car sales for years to come.

Despite demand, automotive producers have reported that they struggle to achieve profitability due to manufacturing challenges. Even as entire supply chains are built around EVs, their components remain extremely complex to produce efficiently.

As in many other industries, using additive manufacturing (AM) in automotive to prototype components represents an opportunity to speed up time to market and save resources.

NEW MATERIALS, BETTER RESULTS

Pure Copper material and the Metal X system by Markforged are being used in automotive R&D to prototype components such as busbars in order to reduce costs and optimise designs.

A busbar is an electroconductive metallic bar that distributes current to subsystems in intensive electrical applications. It is therefore an essential component when it comes to achieving optimal electrical performance in EVs.

Designing the right busbar can be complex as engineers must work with multiple constraints. In particular, a viable design requires them to work within boundaries of both form factor and heat dissipation requirements.

Busbars in EVs are usually made of pure copper, due to the material’s high electrical conductivity. But despite its excellent electrical properties, copper is difficult to work with in traditional manufacturing, which translates into high price tags and long lead times. To alleviate these challenges, metal 3D printing is the perfect candidate.

Given that several iterations may be needed to create an optimised part, these high costs and long lead times can force designers to make several compromises, and time constraints may lead to less optimal designs.

By 3D printing pure copper to prototype busbar designs, electric vehicle suppliers can

enjoy several competitive advantages.

The ability to 3D print in pure copper allows vehicle suppliers to reduce costs on each iteration and avoid long lead times due to bottlenecks in machine centres. It also empowers engineers to quickly test more experimental designs.

MORE FOR LESS

Markforged estimates that a traditional manufacturing process for creating a busbar prototype would typically cost about over £160 per iteration, with a three-week lead time. By contrast, printing a busbar prototype with the Metal X System in pure copper would cost around only £45, with a lead time of just three days.

This means the Metal X can turn around 9 iterations in the same time it would take to get just a single iteration through traditional fabrication, allowing engineers to test designs during time that would otherwise be spent waiting for parts to arrive.

Markforged Metal X is not the only technology to offer the possibility to print copper, but the company claims it is the only one that allows printing pure copper, which is required for the fabrication of busbars, since other copper alloys would not yield the same performance.

The ability to produce 3D printed prototypes is extremely valuable, with quick-turnaround fabrication having a revolutionary effect on the workflow and freeing up valuable machinist bandwidth and reducing the costs associated with using third-party services in order to get prototypes in hand.

Besides busbars, 3D-printed pure copper is also being used for EV applications such as heat sinks, exchangers and cold plates.

Faster prototyping abilities are a big boost to design cycles, making possible higher levels of optimisation compared to traditional manufacturing.

These characteristics are particularly crucial for applications where time and money optimisations are a priority, and EV development is one of the sectors where these pressures are felt the most.

» The journey towards zero-emission vehicles starts with small components. Claudia Schergna speaks to Markforged about how its copper 3D printing technology helps car designers create parts with efficiency

(Above) Markforged is bringing 3D-printed

REINVENTINGTHE WHEEL

Wheel design is a vital aspect of a car’s overall look, but developing wheels can be costly. Stephen Holmes speaks to Lacks Enterprises about its award-winning solution for Toyota, which combines strong aesthetics with fuel efficiency

Variety and differentiation between products are key aspects of modern car design, helping produce more marketable versions and keeping models looking fresh long into their lifecycle.

Wheel design is a critical part of this. They catch the eye and help distinguish a brand’s models across multiple tiers. And with the advent of hybrid and electric vehicles, the importance of lightweighting and the aerodynamic properties of wheels have only increased.

But designing, validating and casting a wide range of options adds huge costs to overall vehicle development, while often restricting designers in terms of materials, textures and form.

Headquartered in Michigan, US, Lacks Enterprises is a Tier One supplier to the automotive industry, which recently delivered an ingenious design for customer Toyota. Lacks was approached by the Japanese car giant about creating six unique wheels across its new Sienna and Tacoma models.

Taking Toyota’s CAD models, designed in Catia, the company split the wheel into two main entities: a hidden ‘backbone’ aluminium wheel that can be optimised for weight; and the Lacks Wheel Trim System, which showcases the styling required by Toyota’s designers and is applied to the face of the wheel.

For the 8-seater Toyota Sienna people carrier, the Wheel Trim System features a composite surface finish permanently bonded to the wheel. The proprietary finishing technologies from Lacks give it the ability to layer chrome, colour and texture seamlessly on the trim, while the optimised backbone wheel means the overall design can be reduced in weight by 12 kg over a traditional cast wheel.

MULTIPLE OPTIONS

Ryan O’Toole, Lacks director of sales and marketing, explains that as electric vehicles become more prominent, the Wheel Trim System gives car designers more options.

“A lot of times, engineering picks a target weight that then limits the studio’s design,” he says. “We’ve actually been able to stretch the playing field where the studio person has more freedom. If they’re given a weight target of a certain number of kilograms where they’ve got to make a lot of design concessions, now with our technology they’re able to utilise different options.”

Technical capabilities like sculpted bright surfaces, minimal radii and tight sidewall draft tolerances mean the design teams have fewer limitations when creating a wheel design. But weight savings mean that wheel diameters can also be a more visually appealing size while still meeting strict weight criteria. This enabled Toyota to add a 20-inch wheel to its range.

In this way, unique looks can be created for each trim

level, without the additional investment required to validate a new backbone or create new tooling for each new style.

Lacks can produce a fully validated new style in around 32 weeks, and less if it is a colour or finish change with no alterations to the mouldings. This allows brands like Toyota to update wheel finishes much faster than usual, promising greater revenues for future models and enabling them to produce limited-production ‘buzz models’ with greater speed and flexibility.

ACCURATE PROTOTYPING

A key challenge for Lacks is providing a customer with accurate prototypes to help inform decision-making. Generally speaking, 3D-printed prototypes can’t capture super-fine details that have to be cut into the tooling, such as brushed finishes.

Physical finish samples called ‘frogs’ are sent out to designers, showing different finishing options. To speed up the process, the Lacks team also uses a 3D modelsharing platform, Sketchfab, to share a rendering of the design. This enables the viewer to move around a wheel design in detail and even share it with decision-makers in their organisation.

Any changes or ideas can be quickly accommodated by Lacks; having all of its finish and texturing capabilities in-house means it can make adjustments like altering the direction of brush finish quickly and have it back to the client.

O’Toole gives the example of a wheel system texture produced for Ford. “The [designer] actually found a sample of it at Home Depot over here, brought it in to us, and we did it in four different ways and depths! A lot of texture houses out there are kinda like, ‘Here’s your six brush textures.’ That’s it. Whereas we want to say: ‘What do you guys want?’”

Optimised composite surfaces also bring environmental benefits to cars like the Toyota Sienna, by being more aerodynamic and therefore fuel-efficient along the road than traditional ‘open’ steel or aluminium wheels.

By adding composite elements to the lightened aluminium wheel, the method also gives Toyota’s engineers the option to reduce the mass of the other components directly connected to them, such as the suspension, reducing the unsprung vehicle weight for a much more economical drive.

As a result of its work for Toyota, Lacks was named runner-up in the prestigious Sustainable Product Category of the 2022 Altair Enlighten Awards. And according to O’Toole, the company’s pace of development isn’t slowing down any time soon.

More optimisation is possible, including increasing the aerodynamics of the back side of the wheels, he says, as well as introducing even more finishing options that will see its wheels roll on into the future.

www.lacksenterprises.com

We’ve actually been able to stretch the playing field where the studio person has more freedom and is able to utilise different options

NINEGREEN MATERIALSTHAT COULDCHANGETHE WAYYOUDESIGN PRODUCTS

» From polymers for packaging to coatings for metals, here’s the DEVELOP3D round-up of nine materials that use innovative, eco-friendly thinking to get around some of product design’s most tricky challenges

ECOR

BY NOBLE

Eco particleboard

We all know that recycling is the first step towards a greener future, but what happens to our waste after we dispose of it?

Produced by San Diego-based Noble Environmental Technologies, Ecor is a recycled-content particleboard created from raw materials that might otherwise enter traditional waste disposal systems.

The raw materials are sorted, preprocessed and then processed using a mechanical pulping approach and a controlled chemical reaction that uses lignin as a natural binder.

The US-based company aims to provide a green alternative to materials such as medium-density fiberboard and chipboard by using as feedstock scrap paper, textiles and aseptic packaging.

Sustainable coatings can be applied for water and fire resistance. A new step in the process increases the stability of the panels, making them suitable for outdoor applications.

www.ecorglobal.com

FIBRAESE/PAPIRA

Wood-foam packaging options

The wood foams Fibraese and Papira are cushioning materials that aim to enable brands to create greener packaging for fragile goods.

Fibraese is made from Nordic wood and features damping and insulation capacity while also being recyclable in existing paper/board streams.

Designed to replace polymer foams in packaging solutions, it is soft yet resilient, exhibiting memory foam-like behaviour. It suits different types of conversion methods, such as sawing, die-cutting, waterjet cutting and laminating.

Papira is also recyclable in regular paper and board flows, but it uses pulp fibres as feedstock and has shock-absorbent capabilities, making it ideal for protective packaging applications.

NAS ECO & LURAN ECO BY

INEOS STYROLUTION

Clear plastics

Produced by Ineos Styrolution, Nas Eco and Luran Eco are tough and shapeless copolymers, obtained from renewable feedstock including kitchen and wood waste. Their production does not divert resources that might otherwise be utilised in food production.

Ineos Styrolution claims that, depending on the amount of feedstock used to produce the material, the carbon footprint reduction for these products varies from 77% to 99%, when compared to respective fossilbased equivalents. These materials boast transparency, minimal haziness and resistance to both heat and chemicals.

Luran Eco is a styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) mainly used in household and cosmetics packaging applications. Nas Eco is a styrene methyl methacrylate (SMMA) copolymer that is stiff, amorphous and features high transparency, making it suitable for water tanks, displays, food containers or boxes.

Both materials have received the sustainability certification ISCC PLUS.

www.ultrapolymers.com

Producer Stora Enso claims that the wood-based raw materials are sourced from sustainably managed forests, and that the manufacturing process of foaming the material involves only air and water – no solvents, blowing agents or hazardous chemicals.

The environmental impact and carbon footprint of these materials have been tested in Stora Enso’s in-house ISTA-certified laboratory.

www.storaenso.com

AMORIM CORK COMPOSITES

Aerospace-grade cork

It’s no secret that cork is one of the most sustainable materials in nature. Cork oak forests support a unique and fragile ecology, providing a habitat for rare and endangered species. They protect against erosion and desertification, act as a barrier against fire, regulate the hydrological cycle and also absorb carbon dioxide.

Amorim Cork Composite produces materials made from cork combined with surplus products from other industries. These materials are used in applications ranging from construction to mobility, and from footwear to furniture.

Thanks to their capacity to absorb a large amount of heat, products from Amorim Cork Composite are even employed in the aerospace industry.

Amorim Cork Composite states that lifecycle assessments show its materials and processes to have a negative carbon balance, when taking into consideration the carbon sequestration abilities of a cork oak forest and the emissions associated with the industrial process.

www.amorimcorkcomposites.com

ALGALFOAM BY CHECKERSPOT

Marine foam

Checkerspot first demonstrated the potential of its sustainable materials as alternatives to conventional petroleumbased ones by collaborating with winter sports equipment specialist WNDR Alpine to produce ski layups.

Using AlgalTech technology, WNDR Alpine created skis that are both ecofriendly and high performing.

San Francisco Bay-based Checkerspot is now exploring other uses for its algae-based materials. One such material is AlgalFoam, a rigid, high-density polyurethane foam made from algae. It features a closed-cell structure and can be used to manufacture products that contain up to 41% USDA Certified Biobased content.

www.checkerspot.com

For lighter car parts

Faurecia is focusing on developing sustainable solutions for vehicle interiors with the goal of reducing the CO2 footprint of materials by 87% by 2030. This includes incorporating recyclable and recycled materials and creating alternatives to petrol solutions with no impact on cost.

To achieve this goal, Faurecia has selected NAFILean, a 20% hemp fibre-reinforced polypropylene compound specifically designed for automotive structural parts. In addition to being a renewable and green material, the company chose hemp because it met required performance and safety standards while enabling a weight reduction of 5kg per vehicle, resulting in lower fuel consumption.

Faurecia claims that the NAFILean products are, on average, 25% lighter than their conventional counterparts and save around 28% in CO2 emissions.

Moreover, the benefits of using hemp extend beyond the automotive industry, as this plant requires no pesticides, fungicides or irrigation, and creates healthier soil for future crops.

Faurecia’s materials have been used in 17 vehicle models to date, including the Renault Clio, Alfa Romeo Giulia, Peugeot 508 and Land Rover Velar. That’s some 13 million cars in total.

www.faurecia.com

NAFILEAN X FORVIA FAURECIA

HENKEL PALUMBINA

Aluminium for automotive

Awarded by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment, Henkel’s innovative thin-film metal pre-treatment process reduces the manufacturing steps involved in a conventional metal pretreatment process from seven steps to four.

Environmental benefits include the elimination of heavy metal phosphates like zinc, nickel and manganese phosphates; the reduction of sludge generation by up to 90%; and a significant decrease in water usage.

One major change is the use of a metal oxide conversion coating in place of a zinc phosphate-based coating. This new process decreases the amount of sludge generated by reducing the need for metal etching and fluoride additives. As a result, tank cleanings are required less regularly and annual chemical cleanings are eliminated. This reduces both sludge removal and labour costs.

The Pallumina thin-film process can process up to 100% aluminium and is effective across all major metals. The process is recognised for its significant environmental and economic impact, as it allows for the use of aluminium in the automotive industry.

www.henkel.com

ECONIQ BY NUCOR

Net-zero steel

Steel company Nucor claims that Econiq is the world’s first net-zero steel. It is obtained by using electricity from 100% renewable sources, which eliminates Scope 2 emissions, and then purchasing carbon offsets to eliminate Scope 1 emissions.

According to Nucor, the emissions from its EAF steel mill are less than 25% of the global average. The company has committed to an additional 35% reduction in steel mill Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG intensity by 2030, using 2015 baseline goals.

Nucor uses recycled scrap-based electric arc furnace technology and is a significant purchaser of renewable energy. It has a virtual agreement in place to receive wind and solar power.

Several automakers, including General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, have announced that they will incorporate Econiq into their workflows. Nucor has also stated that Econiq could be used in the construction, renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.

www.nucor.com

NEMALLOY

BY NEMAK

Lightweight alloy

Novel automotive aluminium alloy

Nemalloy from Nemak has won the Altair Enlighten Award 2022 in the Future of Lightweighting category. This alloy offers several environmental benefits. Its composition eliminates the need for strengthening via heat costs, for example, and it can be easily cast into large thinwalled components. It can also be fully recycled.

Nemak’s melting centre focuses on producing aluminium-silicon alloys specifically used in the automotive industry. The company recycles approximately 2.5 billion aluminium cans every year, resulting in an eco-friendlier manufacturing process.

The company claims that its recycling capacity of over 400,000 tonnes per annum can significantly reduce the energy required to extract primary aluminium by 95%, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 4.8 million tons annually.

www.nemak.com

COMING AROUND

A recent collaboration between simulation software developer Ansys, several recycling companies and a producer of automotive parts has demonstrated how recycled plastics could be more widely used in products, to the benefit of the environment

Recycling plastics is an obvious solution to a huge pollution problem, but most of us have only a naïve understanding of how it works. There’s a lot of sorting and chopping involved to make plastic pieces small enough to flow into a mixer, and there are chemical additives used as binders or flow enablers needed to enhance the properties of the resulting material.

Even after all that, a recycler still can’t be sure if the recycled plastics will be useful to potential customers seeking to turn them into new products.

Aesthetically, a recycled version will probably not look good enough to be used on the exterior of a product, so it’s typically placed out of view, like behind a car bumper or sandwiched between two pieces of metal.

The recycled plastic may not have the same strength as the equivalent virgin plastic material, and the strength will vary from batch to batch. This is because the recyclable materials in any municipal waste stream vary depending on what’s being thrown away at any given time, and hence are typically a blend of similar plastics.

So, how can recyclers and their customers determine and keep track of the physical properties of recycled plastics and effectively deal with the inherent variability of these properties?

Through a recent project with three UK companies, Ansys believes the answer lies in a process that best combines four of its technologies into a streamlined workflow.

MAKING IT EASIER

To make it easier for recyclers and their customers to produce viable recycled plastics and use them in products, Ansys collaborated with Impact Recycling, Impact Solutions, and Far-UK to undertake the Plastic Recycling in Stochastic Modelling (PRISM) Project. Stochastic refers to randomness. It’s in understanding the randomness of the feedstock and the resulting physical properties of the recycled plastic that simulation can be of huge value to the recycling process.

Impact Recycling, which offers a sustainable solution for recycling post-consumer products, can successfully recycle upwards of 80% of the plastic municipal waste it handles. However, that still leaves an expensive 20% on which it must pay taxes to send to landfills or incinerators.

Companies like Far-UK, a producer of automotive parts for niche vehicles, could potentially save a lot of money in manufacturing while offering a more sustainable product by using recycled materials from companies like Impact Recycling. But that’s providing these materials meet the exacting requirements of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to which it sells.

Part of the challenge lies in presenting these materials as a viable alternative to the virgin polymers that automotive OEMs have been using for decades.

“These companies need to understand when they have to use virgin materials and when they can use a recycled material instead,” says Donna Dykeman, R&D manager for collaborative R&D at Ansys. And that’s where Ansys simulation solutions come in, she adds.

The simulation workflow combined four Ansys simulation products: Ansys Granta MI, Ansys SpaceClaim, Ansys optiSLang, and Ansys LS-DYNA. Together, these simulation tools were used to optimise workflows to handle the uncertainty of material properties and screen geometries for applications to replace virgin plastics with recycled ones.

“Granta MI stores the materials data. Then, LS-DYNA was used to create the material card based on test data. The card was validated against test coupon geometries and subcomponent geometries – for example, a beam under various loading conditions. This first step of testing and material card generation was performed by Far-UK,” Dykeman explains.

“Next, we used optiSLang to create a workflow with SpaceClaim and LS-DYNA to vary the geometry of candidate parts and the material properties until an optimal design was reached. When an OEM specifies a property or geometry tolerance that must be met, the outcome of the optimisation process suggests which property requires improvement, and by how much.”

● 1 A simulationled workflow was developed to test the optimal use of a material with highly variable properties

● 2 The new PRISM recycled ABS thermoplastic blend, compared with other similar materials

● 3 Ansys optiSLang was used to find the optimal design

● 4 The optimal design, using the PRISM honeycomb structure

AROUND AGAIN

DESIGNED FOR SHOCKS

Ansys used this workflow to design a plastic honeycomb made of recycled materials to be installed behind the surface of a car bumper to absorb the shock of a crash. After proposing an initial geometry for the honeycomb, engineers performed LS-DYNA crash testing to see how well the structure absorbed and dispersed the energy of the crash.

Ansys optiSLang was used to find the optimal design by minimising mass and displacement while maximising the accumulated energy of the honeycomb.

Through a parametric study involving an iterative series of simulations, Ansys determined the optimal geometry of the bumper – such as the type of honeycomb structure, how thick the cells should be, bumper dimensions, and where mass could be removed from the benchmark steel bumper to achieve the allowable displacement before contact with more trunk components.

“Ansys optiSLang is able to help designers find where the sweet spot of a design is through automation by running hundreds to thousands of simulations until it converges on an optimal design,” says Dykeman.

WIDE IMPACT

The impact of the project was widespread. Costs for manufacturing the recycled material fell, while production levels grew from 400 to 700 tonnes a year, allowing recyclers to meet the high demand-versus-supply of recycled plastics in light of the 30% tax on virgin plastics for consumer packaging.

Far-UK, as a producer of automotive parts, benefited from the chance to explore how to manage the variability of materials from recyclate in design, with the aim of introducing materials with lower costs and carbon footprint in the future. It also used Ansys simulation tools to generate and validate the material card for use across wider applications.

PRISM showcases how material circularity and better eco design can be achieved by applying the right solvers connected with a simulation digital thread, tidying up the issues of highly variable material properties.

www.ansys.com

HOT SHOT

Precision is key to crafting a consistently high quality cup of coffee. Nowhere is this more important than in the final leg of the value chain –production. The grinder must deliver the exact grade of beans each and every time. The espresso machine must heat and pressurise water to exact specifications.

Gruppo Cimbali is aiming to perfect this final step before customer consumption. The company is incorporating more transparent processes and data in its product development, as part of its wider commitment to sustainability and making sure nothing goes to waste. The end goal, however, remains the same: great coffee. Making coffee is energy intensive. Even professional coffee machines can lose more than 300W of power through heat loss alone. The peak load power requirements of many espresso machines exceeds 6 kW.

This is where Gruppo Cimbali, which includes brands such as La Cimbali and Faema, sees digital twin technology introducing a hot shot of efficiency. Key requirements such as reducing energy loss, balancing peak loads and enabling its team to develop more efficient operating strategies can all be achieved with extensive virtual prototype testing. And that means better optimised products and faster development, making each cup of coffee more sustainable.

Maurizio Tursini, chief marketing and solution officer for Gruppo Cimbali says that new technologies are key to creating a unique user experience. “By providing sleek, reliable, energy-efficient products, we are an industry leader,” he says, speaking from Gruppo Cimbali’s headquarters in Binasco, on the outskirts of Milan, Italy.

“The primary focus of the physics-based digital twin is the physical modelling, simulation and optimisation of the thermodynamic process, including a real-time,

From bean to cup, coffee involves one of the world’s most intricate value chains. Gruppo Cimbali is setting out to perfect the process with the aid of digital twin technology

human-in-the-loop view. This helps us make better products faster.”

To do this, the engineers are using Altair’s comprehensive One Total Twin platform, in order to create physics- and data-driven digital twins that can be connected. “This allows us to optimise functionality at the system level for the entire design and product lifecycle,” says Tursini.

TIME TO REFUEL

Gruppo Cimbali executives say that the company’s optimisation process has already improved the performance and efficiency of its espresso machines and helped reduce energy loss in its latest generation of products.

Compared to its prior E71 model, featuring traditional thermal technology, Tursini says its engineers achieved an improvement of 20% with an independent boiler

structure. For its new E71e model, based on this improved technology platform, another 25% of energy savings were achieved through virtual prototyping.

The goal is to add new technical solutions to future machine generations as the company continues on its journey towards a target of 40% energy loss savings.

“In addition, the reduction in physical testing means we require fewer prototypes, can reduce prototyping costs and better define the design exploration space, which reduces overall material and energy usage,” adds Tursini.

“And lastly, the digital twin workflow has significantly shortened the length of the development cycle,” he says.

“Our digital twin approach, with the help of Altair and their unique One Total Twin platform, has streamlined our processes and improved our machines. Together, we’re developing more efficient, more sustainable ways to enjoy coffee.” Something we can all drink to.

www.gruppocimbali.com

●

● 1 The Faema E71e was developed using digital twin technology

2 Digital twin technology enables engineers to predict machine performance and optimise energy efficiency

A SMARTER

Since March 2020, we’ve witnessed an upsurge in DIY. Even now that Covid restrictions have been lifted and shops have reopened, the trend is far from over.. In terms of sustainability, it’s great news. Knowing how to repair objects can lead to a massive reduction in waste and resource consumption.

The Finnish telecommunications brand Nokia has decided to target this trend and develop a phone that can be repaired by users.

Research conducted by YouGov in May 2020 found that 70% of British smartphone owners replace their phone within four years; 28% buy a new phone every one to two years; and 45% would rather replace it than repair it.

The research also found that one of the main reasons for this behaviour is cost. Although it might seem counter intuitive, replacing your smartphone with a new one is often not much more expensive than repairing it. Sometimes, it might even be cheaper.

ON A MISSION

Nokia is on a mission to tackle this excessive consumption and encourage users to repair their devices before buying new ones. Thanks to a collaboration with iFixit, the company is offering affordable repairs and easy access to parts.

The Nokia G22 was not only designed to allow users to repair it, but also to last longer in the first place. To add extra durability, the phone features a two-tone colour recycled plastic back with a high-gloss finish and a sturdy matte metal camera base and front glass developed by Corning Gorilla.

“People value sustainable, quality devices and they shouldn’t have to compromise on price to get it,” says Adam Ferguson, head of marketing at HMD Global, Nokia’s exclusive licensee.

“We are continuing our journey towards more sustainable and longer lasting devices. The new Nokia G22 is purposefully built with a repairable design and is packed with features that improve performance and

The sustainability motto ‘recycle, reuse, and reduce’ may need to be updated to include a fourth ‘r’: repair. Nokia is leading the way in the telecommunications industry with its new G22 smartphone, designed to be fixed at home by its user

SMARTER PHONE

longevity without extra cost,” he goes on. Nokia says the aim is to offer a sustainable option without having to compromise on quality or access to the latest technologies. This is why it made audio and image quality a priority.

Whether users like to use headphones or the phone’s speaker, Nokia promises high quality, and with OZO Playback, the phone should deliver enhanced bass and clearer sound.

Additionally, the Audio Boost should allow users to increase the volume when listening in noisy environments.

The 50MP camera of the Nokia G22 is supported by high-end imaging algorithms that should produce excellent pictures. It features Night and Quick Night modes, which should help balance highlights and shadows for the perfect night-time shot using both front and rear cameras. The 6.52-inch HD+ display of the phone should allow users to appreciate every detail of their photos and videos.

“Nokia G22 is a step in the right direction, and we need more companies to follow their lead and prioritise sustainability in their product design,” says iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens.

“Battery issues, screen damage and charging port problems are some of the most common issues that smartphone users face, so having the ability to easily replace these parts can save consumers time and money in the long run.”

With its new G22, Nokia not only promises device longevity but also longer battery life, which should last up to three days and should maintain over 80% of its original capacity even after 800 full charging cycles.

To make self-repair accessible, Nokia and iFixit provide users with step-by-step manuals, videos, and guidance via a website.

The repair kits include both iFixit tools and approved spare parts, so that DIY experts and beginners alike can save money and contribute to reducing e-waste.

www.nokia.com

Wheel design is a vital aspect of a car’s overall look, but developing wheels can be costly. Stephen Holmes speaks to Lacks Enterprises about its award-winning solution for Toyota, which combines strong aesthetics with fuel efficiency

Innovation around sustainable design and manufacturing has engrossed Stephen Holmes this issue, but he reckons it’s a product at the less flashy end of the spectrum that could have the biggest impact: packaging

Quick! Name the first ‘sustainable product’ that comes to mind. Was it an electric car? An electric bike? One of those eVTOL planes, the ones that are announced on a near-weekly basis, and that I swear must be some sort of Ponzi scheme?

We’re living through another age of electrification that is fuelling transport development, buoyed by sensors, simulation and cloud computing. However, the development that came to my mind was decidedly less sexy than anything that comes on wheels.

If I’m completely honest, it was a cardboard box. Now, hear me out: online retail has changed not only how we buy products, but also how they’re delivered to our homes and workplaces. This, in turn, is driving innovation when it comes to cardboard boxes.

Gone are the days when packaging was designed merely to be an extension of a product’s advertising, handled by the consumer carrying the item from the store shelf to their home. Gone are the mountains of polystyrene blobs that encase a box within a box.

As with electric vehicles, new innovations have emerged, built around lightweighting, sustainable materials and carbon reduction.

The eco-materials list that you will find in the pages of this issue could easily have been double its current length, simply by including all the new materials used in the packaging industry. They range from foam replacements made from fungi and shock-absorbent wood pulps, to insulating sheep-wool packing and polymers created from a mixture of coffee waste and some smart, biodegradable resins.

PEDALS AND PAPER BAGS

The ecosystem for getting new products to the end user responsibly is booming. Even cycle delivery services such as Pedal Me are upending traditional ideas around what can be transported on a bike. The company’s social media feeds are a revelation when it comes to discovering some of the more unexpected loads that can now be shifted by cargo bike: sofas, beer barrels, a person’s household belongings in their entirety.

Pedal Me’s network is enabled by some excellent two-wheeled hardware, clever software and well-thought-out processes around operator training.

At the other end of the scale, driven by the likes of Amazon, packaging is going minimalist. Such is the increasing maturity of online retail that the days of receiving a stapler in a box big enough to house a microwave oven are now consigned to history. By comparison, this morning, I received a delivery that consisted of little more than a paper bag holding the naked product inside. Such delivery methods – even ones offering more protection – are impacting the design of the products inside. How products stand up to being shipped by courier is now a design consideration in the earliest stages of the development process, not only helping to decide how products can be packed into as small a container as possible, but even how wall thicknesses might survive a tumble in a giant mail processing facility or a rough throw into the back of a delivery van.

More products are being shaped to fit standard package sizes, which themselves are being defined to fit through letterboxes or into pick-up lockers.

CONSIDERATE DESIGN

Assembly on delivery at least means more can be crammed into a package, but then product joins, connectors and preferably toolless construction come into play.

Already we’re seeing software like Zea3D and Cadasio enabling product teams to use CAD models to quickly create instructions that direct the end user on how to put the product together without a full-blown meltdown and a handful of leftover parts.

It’s quite a task to design something robust enough to stand up to being dumped behind a wheelie bin for six hours straight during a torrential rainstorm, but can also be recycled easily, uses as little material as possible and is still cost-effective.

As usual, there’s a lot of amazing design and engineering taking place out of the spotlight to help reduce the environmental impact of products. Hopefully, this issue has helped highlight some of these, and will inspire you to look at your own designs and processes. And maybe some time soon, when people are asked to name a sustainable product, your product will be the first one that springs to mind.

GET IN TOUCH: On the topic of home delivery, Stephen is convinced that one particular delivery company has created a cloaking mechanism that makes its operatives invisible to his doorbell camera. You know the one. Find Stephen on Twitter: @swearstoomuch

It’s amazing what you can get delivered by bike these days

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With increasing maturity, the days of receiving a stapler in a box big enough to house a microwave are now consigned to history 

CAE Expertise