ATG Relies on Dassault Systèmes' DELMIA for Facility Layout and Production Optimization

Virtual Validation of Complete Facility Offers Immense Savings.

FELLBACH, Germany - Dassault Systèmes (DS) today announced that ATG Solutions GmbH, (Thüringen, Germany) a designer and manufacturer of production facilities and equipment, relies exclusively upon its DELMIA software solutions for validating its manufacturing facility and equipment efficiency. The digital manufacturing software is helping the company save time and money by identifying potential problems in the virtual world, prior to production.

“Because of the ubiquity of CATIA in our industry design engineering, the seamless compatibility of DELMIA data is a huge plus,” says Torsten Hessland, CEO of ATG. “DELMIA allows us to integrate visualizations and simulations easily into previously existing plant and engineering designs without losing any time due to translation issues.”

Working with SWJ Consult GmbH (Städe, Germany), an independent engineering company for planning and project management, ATG is able to create an entire factory or production facility in the virtual world of DELMIA. Noted Hessland, “Without the DELMIA solutions, it would not be possible to create the necessary interfaces for system evaluation.”

To accomplish its goal of proving out factory floor efficiency in the virtual world, ATG is currently implementing DELMIA DPM body-in-white, Robotics, Human, and Automation solutions. Together, these solutions allow ATG to create, modify and validate automotive body-in-white planning for lines and stations in a virtual 3D environment—inclusive of robotic workcell programming and human behaviors—prior to any physical production. Additionally, the virtual commissioning capabilities of DELMIA Automation solution merge the 3D virtual manufacturing models with the actual control systems and robot controllers. The company can then conduct and evaluate “what if” scenarios to optimize production, enabling them to get it right the first time. Any proposed changes to a plant floor layout can be explored beforehand in the virtual model of the plants.

The strength of the CATIA/DELMIA combined solution is based upon the common data model, which allows for continuity of workflow to achieve immense time, quality and investment advantages. “For example,” explains Dr. Bernd Hirthammer, CEO of SWJ, “when several robots are involved in the material handling of a component, we can simulate the process offline using DELMIA for maximum efficiency. The accuracy of the solution then allows for easy transfer and upload of the program to the real-world equipment.”

Currently, ATG is focusing on the development of new materials for carbon fiber technology. “Given today’s focus on energy conservation through weight reduction, we are examining applications where steel or aluminum could be replaced with carbon fiber materials,” says Dr. Hirthammer. “This is an excellent application of the DELMIA portfolio as we’ve found that our simulation results have been confirmed through real-world prototype testing.”