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South Africa’s leading automotive battery company, First National Battery, deploys Dassault Systèmes’ 3D technology to design smaller, lighter and more powerful batteries. By using digital simulation to test and validate its designs, the company provides efficient solutions that place it at the forefront of OEM requirements.
Celebrating nearly 80 years of existence, South Africa’s First National Battery produces 2.2 million lead-acid batteries per year for a range of industrial, commercial and transport uses. It supplies automobile batteries to major OEMs including BMW, Ford, General Motors, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, UD Trucks and Volkswagen SA.
Tony Du Preez, product development manager at First National Battery, explains how the company uses Dassault Systèmes’ 3D technology to develop better batteries: “We work with OEMs to make lead-acid batteries to meet their precise size and output requirements. We use CATIA to design tooling, moulds and components, and 3D simulation software to develop and modify assembly tooling.”
“With CATIA, we can quickly generate solutions in line with our customers’ needs and develop the best tooling designs. The power of CATIA means that we never run out of development capabilities and the time we save can be counted in hundreds of hours.”
Tony Du Preez,
Product Development Manager, First National Battery
The company faces a constant demand for smaller, lighter and more powerful batteries. Du Preez explains how they meet these demands: “We reduce lead-acid battery weight gram by gram. We use CATIA to iterate battery grid design and to remove extraneous materials wherever possible. We work alongside our technical research and development teams who use 3D CATIA models. Our teams are able to verify design changes digitally and no longer rely on physical prototypes.”
Positive improvements
Many of the improvements made to batteries reflect new technical developments. Working with 3D digital models, First National Battery is able to optimize designs and processes to take advantage of continual advances in technology. “We use CATIA 3D models throughout the extended enterprise,” Du Preez comments. “Using digital models means that we don’t have to make prototypes to test new ideas. This accelerates innovation and enables our technical team to run many ‘what if’ scenarios and grid patterns. We are also able to accurately judge the effects of varying grid thickness across the plate and improve battery design while reducing weight.”
Using the same advanced Dassault Systèmes’ software capabilities as the automotive OEMs they supply ensures that First National Battery can maintain and enhance its leadership position in the automotive supply-chain. Du Preez explains how support from business partner CDC helps them in their work: “We get valuable training that keeps us up to date and shows us how we can get the most out of our system. CDC helps us improve productivity with tailor- made courses and software support. By understanding our design, engineering and manufacturing systems as well as our data communication needs with regard to OEMs and suppliers, they provide us with significant technical and commercial benefits.”
Igal Filipovski, CDC managing director, adds: “We are an interface with Dassault Systèmes for our customers. We support our customers’ technical infrastructure and training needs which helps them to gain considerable advantages. Working with multinational enterprises at the pinnacle of innovation means we can deliver methodologies in line with OEM requirements and bring the latest thinking and ideas to the supply chain community.”
Thinking outside the box
“My experience with several design engineering simulation packages has taught me that they often hamper innovation by forcing users to adopt certain kinds of designs,” Du Preez says. “This is not the case with CATIA. There are no such limitations. We are often faced with engineering situations that require very original solutions. With CATIA, we can quickly generate solutions in line with our customers’ needs and develop the best tooling designs. The power of CATIA means that we never run out of development capabilities and the time we save can be counted in hundreds of hours.”
Working with OEMs means that First National Battery must be able to design within prescribed envelopes. “With CATIA, they get designs right the first time and in less time,” Du Preez explains. “Our designers maintain a visual database of component variations. They can easily select and modify these elements and incorporate them into a new model.”
Pushing the envelope
One of the extended uses that the company makes of its 3D data is in marketing. Here 3D models are an excellent means for sharing new design principles and other innovations with current and potential customers. Incorporating engineering models into MS PowerPoint presentations is a powerful way to show complex products to their best advantage.
3D technology is expanding its influence throughout the supply chain. With continuing support from CDC, the company is now equipped to derive maximum technical and commercial benefit from this development. CDC also helps them to stay in pole position by providing advice and guidance on which CATIA elements to evaluate for possible deployment.
“With so much on offer to designers, engineers and manufacturers, it’s sometimes hard to know which products and services will work best in an organization,” Filipovski comments. “CDC’s experience with companies of all sizes gives us a unique perspective on what will best suit different types of organisations. We have guided companies of all sizes through what can seem to be a maze of software options, helping them to make more informed and therefore better decisions – with better results.”
