Customer Brief: Parker Hannifin

Parker Hannifin is the world's leading manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets.

Bruno Fairy is a simulation and analysis engineer working at Parker’s Hydraulic Controls Division in Warwick. He believes the key to delivering true value to customers lies in embracing virtual product development technology like upfront CFD.
 
Solving Hidden Design Flaws

In certain situations, simulation may not just be a more cost effective way of solving a problem: it might be the only way. Bruno cites a wheel loader spool design project as an example. The objective was to solve an instability issue a customer encountered on installation. At the time, this Parker division did not have access to CFD software and spent 18 months trying to solve the problem using conventional methods.
 
“The instability was thought to be linked to cavitation inside the manifold or valve, something you cannot see very easily with conventional testing methods,” explains Bruno. “Even with considerable expertise and past experience it was very difficult to pinpoint the cause of the problem. They kept on building and testing prototypes, but literally could not see where the issue was. It was impossible to visualise.”
 
The design, build, test method was eventually replaced by a virtual approach when Parker invested in CFdesign software.

Simulation Results Lead to a Solution

“Within about four weeks of attending training, the division was able to develop a model, analyse it and see something that made sense,” concludes Bruno. “We designed the solution on CAD, ran the CFD simulation again to check it was yielding better results and eventually made a prototype, tested it on-site with the customer and it worked. The feedback from the operator was that it was the best wheel loader he had ever driven.”

In this case, the simulations also showed that engineers at Parker had been doing things right all along. They simply needed a deeper level of insight into what was going on inside the product in order to solve the problem. Upfront simulation tools give engineers a better understanding of product performance and, in turn, facilitate the development of cost-effective, innovative and more reliable designs in less time than using conventional methods of building and testing physical prototypes.