Mazda is adding to its advanced manufacturing portfolio by adopting electrical and electronic design software from Mentor, a Siemens subsidiary.
As autos become increasingly complex and data-hungry, a robust and stable electrical and electronic system is a must for cutting-edge automakers. After all, if doesn’t matter how sophisticated your self-driving car is if you can’t trust it not to short out.
This is particularly true of vehicles with electrified powertrains and autonomous driving capabilities. Often, these complex designs are built on entirely new architectures that require state-of-the-art software to design, develop, test and operate them.
Mentor has developed its Capital electric design software suite to meet those requirements. Mazda is relying on Capital for model-based generative design for electrical and electronic systems across the vehicle. Capital’s automated generative design flow helps Mazda’s designers manage design complexity and changes across the vehicle’s extensive electrical and electronics platforms, minimizing costly errors.
Capital tools deliver real-time feedback that are is compared to benchmarks such as cost, weight, and network bandwidth use, allowing engineers to devise and test alternative design approaches. Since electric and autonomous vehicles incorporate large-scale electrical and electronic systems, the Capital software is an important tool to optimize the design of those systems. And Capital software also provides in-depth simulation and verification functions that allow engineers to extensively test their creations.
Mentor’s software also improves communications flow between process outputs created in a variety of natural languages, assisting engineers in translating data from one output to another.
According to Kazuichi Fujisaka, Technical Leader at Mazda, the automaker plans to transition to “a development methodology that allows us to optimize the vehicle as a whole, with all possible variations being considered in the early development stage.” The Capital software tools gives Mazda the ability to create an environment to “visualize the entire vehicle circuitry and standardize our language, tools, and processes without compromise, creating standard models across the company.”
With Capital, Mazda is adding to its suite of Siemens technologies. The manufacturer already uses Siemens’ NX software and Teamcenter portfolio for enterprise collaboration.
As Mazda continues to create more and more advanced vehicles, its advanced design tools will need to take on more and more work. By incorporating Siemens technology in its manufacturing processes, Mazda is showing its willingness to continue pushing the envelope in advanced vehicle design.
Read more about Siemens’ solutions for advanced manufacturing at The Trend that Puts PLM and the Manufacturing World on Its Head.