Design
Mechanical Engineering design
We provide a large variety of services associated to mechanical engineering design to help you at each steps of your project. Some of our design services are listed below:
- Feasability study
- Quick preliminary design study
- Detailed preliminary design study
- Support to write a product specification
- On-site measurements
- 3D CAD design of full product
- Technical drawing
- Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing
- Writing of technical documentation
- Writing of assembly instruction guide
Electrical Engineering design
In order to deliver you turnkey solutions and the best integration between mechanical and electrical components for your special-purpose machine projects, IMF has now in house electrical engineers providing the following services:
- Functionnal analysis
- Choice of electrical components and communication architecture
- Supervision of outsourced electrical design study
- PLC programming (Schneider, Siemens, SEW, ...)
- Risks analysis
Numerical simulations
Finite elements anaylsis (FEA)
We use the finite element solver Code_Aster developed and used on a daily basis by the EDF team in the field of nuclear engineering design and safety. This cutting edge open-source solver gives us the opportunity to fully master the tools we are using and also to develop our own tools to provide the best answers to our customer needs.
Our capabilities in finite element modelling are listed below:
- Static/quasi-static/implicit dynamic analysis
- Linear elastic analyses
- Non-linear analysis: non linear material law, large displacements, large strains, contacts, ...
- Modal analysis
- Thermal analysis
- Thermo-mechanical analysis
- Fluid structure interaction (FSI)
We use the finite element method for the following applications:
- Component sizing
- Choice of materials
- Bolted assembly design and sizing
- Fatigue analysis
- Simulation of complex mechanisms taking into account non-linear contacts
- Validation against conventional structural design standards (F.E.M, CM66, Eurocodes, EN 12663, CODAP, ...)
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Computational fluid dynamics is used more and more as a design tool in the industry. However, CFD requires a very good understanding of the underlying physics and the associated mathematical modeling to yield reliable results. We have in our team a real expertise in a number of areas involving computational fluid dynamics
- Simulation of single-phase turbulent flows (RANS, uRANS et LES)
- Forced, mixed and natural convection flow simulations
- Eulerian/Eulerian modeling of multiphase flows
- Interface tracking multiphase flow simulations
The aforementioned tools can be applied to a large number of fields:
- Aero/hydro-dynamic simulations of internal or external flows
- Simulation of air conditioning and ventilation systems
- Free surface flows
- Head loss calculations
- ...
The list of examples above is not exhaustive. Please don't hesitate to get in touch to present us your project.
To perform our CFD simulations, we use the two well-known open-source codes that are Open-FOAM and Code_Saturne. The latter, developped and used by the EDF team can be coupled to Code_Aster for fluid/structure interaction analyses. Open-source codes allow us to implement our own models based on cutting edge research.
Consultancy
Our technical skills and knowledge of the applicable standards lead us to be regularly consulted as technical experts in case of mechnical failure, lack of reliability of a component, excessive wear, loss of productivity or in case of an accident with a machine. Some examples of our consultancy services are listed below:
- On-site measurements and/or inspections of a facility
- Check of an existing design against the applicable standards
- Proof by advanced computations of the cause of failure of mechanical parts
- Writting of technical consultancy reports
- Technical support in meetings
Other services
In addition to the aforementionned services, we also provide the following:
- Technical staff delegation
- Management of the manufacturing process
- Small machine assembly and startup
- Videos and animations to market an existing product or to present a new concept during the bidding phase of a project