News
Anaglyph products covered in JEC magazine, March 2013
JEC Magazine Special JEC Europe 2013 issue No79 p.21-22:
Speed and accuracy:
essential manufacturing parameters in the F1 sectorRead how the Marussia F1 Team have chosen to use Anaglyph products to design and manufacture their car.
In an interview, Chief Designer John McQuilliam comments:
"Laminate Tools allows us to accurately define a laminate with each ply boundary fully defined within the 3D CAD environment as it will be in the real component..... The PlyMatch system removes interpretation from the manufacturing process, thus improving the repeatability of component weight, stiffness and strength."Read the full article here.
New Laminate Tools version 4.3, March 2013
Version 4.3 further enhances the FEA and CAD interfaces and offers exciting new functionality in the Geometry, Design, Check and Manufacture modules. Picking operations are easier and faster, the Abaqus interfaces are extended, additional capabilities are introduced for embedded applications, post-processing is more intuitive relative to fibre orientation / location, and more...
Users on active maintenance can download the new version here.
Anaglyph at JEC Europe 2013
Visitors at the JEC Paris 2013 exhibition had the opportunity to see the latest developments to the unique PlyMatch™ ply placement visual technology in action, as well as the software products Laminate Tools, LAP and CoDA. Despite the adverse weather conditions, delegate turnout was good, and we noted how the PlyMatch system continues to attract interest and attention, especially with those coming across it for the first time.
Sincere thanks to all visitors for their enthusiastic comments on this innovative and unique technology.
Lotus F1 adopt Laminate Tools as a primary tool (October 2012)
The technology inside a modern Formula One car more resembles that of a modern fighter jet than of the cars we drive to go to work. Research never comes to an end and, typically, during the course of an F1 season lap times can improve in excess of 1.5 seconds. Steve Diamond, Deputy Head of Stress Department for Lotus F1 Team, explains: “At Lotus F1 all our engineers constantly strive to improve the performance of the car. In the Stress Department our focus is not solely on providing lightweight structures capable of contending with the ever increasing loads due to the relentless aerodynamic development but we must also provide sufficiently stiff structures to improve vehicle handling.. To this end, our engineers are required to make many design iterations within the tight deadlines available in order to arrive at an optimized solution.”
Despite operating much closer to their structural limits than their aerospace counterparts, Formula One cars are today very safe vehicles to drive thanks to the advanced tools available to the group of engineers that form the Stress Analysis Department at Lotus F1 Team. Steve Diamond continues: "After evaluating Anaglyph's Laminate Tools, we have now adopted this package as our primary tool in the Stress based ply definition of our chassis laminate and structurally critical composite components. This software has dramatically reduced laminate analysis turnaround times whilst providing a more optimized FEA process within the demanding timescales and allows for more detailed results interrogation with ease. Together with Anaglyph's excellent customer support the transition to Laminate Tools has been seamless, as well as being fully compatible for bi-directional data exchange with our other established composites design tools."
New plug-ins for Laminate Tools: Rhino and Femap (September 2012)
Building on the experience with the SolidWorks - Laminate Tools interface, a plug-in for the popular Rhinoceros 3D CAD application has been developed by Anaglyph Ltd. It allows Rhino users to create draped plies and a basic layup from within Rhino, accessing Laminate Tools remotely. A similar interface for Femap has also been developed by our Italian partners SmartCAE. This is available directly by the developers.
New LAP version 4.2, August 2012
The new LAP version 4.2 introduces user-requested features, such as transverse stress calculation, z-offsets for mechanical loads, and strain-based strength definition. Agents for Germany
We are pleased to announce that CES Eckard GmbH are now our agents for Laminate Tools in Germany. Thanks to their strong experience in CAE, we are confident that they will provide excellent support and advice to German prospects. Contact: info@ces-eckard.de, Tel: +49 (0) 711 781 934-60.
New Laminate Tools version 4.2 released, March 2012
Version 4.2 introduces powerful new features in the Geometry, Design, Check and Manufacture modules, to further enhance the Laminate Tools - FEA / CAD interfaces. Unique enhancements in the PlyMatch™ technology are also available through this new version.
Joint NPL/Anaglyph SEMINAR, January 2012
The Anaglyph/National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Seminar attracted a full audience and delegates spent a day learning about our products CoDA, LAP, Laminate Tools and PlyMatch™, our unique ply placement visual control system. The next seminar will take place later in 2012.
PlyMatch™ improvements, September 2011
A number of software updates to the PlyMatch™ system have improved its usability, as well as offering a variant that is much more affordable. Get in contact with our sales team for more information.
Anaglyph at the SAMPE Show, Long Beach (CA, USA) May 2011
We were very pleased to exhibit at the Long Beach event, jointly with our USA agents, ACE Inc. New, exciting opportunities will be explored through the numerous new contacts made. The upgraded PlyMatch™ system attracted considerable and genuine interest (first time it was publicly shown on US soil), and the latest version of Laminate Tools was a welcome discovery to several visitors.
Many thanks to all visitors and partners.
Laminate Tools helps Cervélo design team (February 2011)
Cervélo’s Vroomen White Design group combined analysis and manufacturing acumen to create a 675g/1.5 lb composite frame, the lightest pro racing frame available today. Read how Laminate Tools helped them achieve this remarkable goal in the full article, in February's issue of Composites Technology Magazine
PlyMatch™ upgrade, June 2010
The PlyMatch system has been upgraded in a number of ways, rendering it more powerful while reducing its cost for yet better value for money. A new integrated camera probe has been designed with four-face tracking, offering much improved functionality and robustness in complex operations. The probe itself can also be used for simple tactile measurements such as for tool calibration, removing the need for additional hardware.
In addition, the control unit and software are now more versatile by allowing multiple connected probes for a number of alternative configurations.
Updated CoDA version 3.3 released, June 2010
The NPL Composite Component Design Analysis application (CoDA) has been overhauled with UNICODE support and state of the art help pages. The updated version now works seamlessly on all Windows versions in any language configuration. A new installation environment also delivers both SI and British Units variants in a single package. Existing users of version 3.3 can download a free upgrade via our Support page.
New LAP version 4.1 released, March 2010
The ever-popular Laminate Analysis Program LAP has been overhauled with UNICODE support and state of the art help pages. Although the analysis functionality remains identical to that of version 4.0 for the moment, the new version 4.1 now works seamlessly on all Windows versions in any language configuration. Existing users of version 4.0 can request a free upgrade.
Laminate Tools used extensively with ANSYS at Nemo Engineering
Nemo Engineering AS have confirmed the value of Laminate Tools in a demanding Ansys design environment and have increased the number of Laminate Tools licences held at their facility at Lysaker, Norway. According to Kjetil Antonsen, "By using Laminate Tools as a pre- and post-processor to Ansys we have reduced the analysis time significantly for our products. Problem areas are quickly identified while the number of FE solving processes can be reduced to a minimum. Laminate Tools enables us to deliver Protection Covers for subsea applications with very short lead time."
The screen shot shows an example non-standard shape cover in Laminate Tools. Most often these covers are tailor-made to fit the items they are designed to protect. The loading for the covers are various lifting and upending configurations, impact (up to 350 kJ), trawl loads from fishing equipment and various project specific loads.
Nemo Engineering have engineered and delivered approximately 2500 metric tonnes of these protection covers for the last 10-12 years.
Altair UK composites day seminar, November 2008
A one-day event was held by Altair UK at Gaydon. We participated actively and showed how our Laminate Tools application is integrated with Altair Hyperworks, to deliver a great combination of two popular products for composites analysts. The seminar was very well attended and the content of the presentations was superb. Sincere thanks and congratulations to Altair UK for organising this event.
ANSYS UK Conference, October 2008
A paper was presented on the well established Laminate Tools / ANSYS integration, at the ANSYS UK 2008 User Conference, 28-30 October, Oxford. ANSYS users benefit enormously by this functionality.
New contact details for our Japanese agent
For enquiries in Japan, please contact Kamo Composite, Mr Shunichiro Hisada, shisada@hm.aitai.ne.jp
Tel/Fax: +81-561-36-7385.Laminate Tools used extensively for the latest LOLA LMP2 race car
The Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 LMP2 Coupe car competes in the LMES in Europe and raced at the Le Mans 24hr race in June. It recently finished 2nd in class on its debut race at Barcelona which far exceeded all expectations at this early stage of the car's development.
pictures courtesy of John Brooks and Lola Cars International LtdThe screen shot of the chassis shows Laminate Tools being used to define the full composite ply layup and then create property cards for use in Altair Hypermesh. Laminate Tools was also used for all FEA post-processing.
The chassis is also used by Charouz Racing in the LMP1 category (known as a Lola B08/60 LMP1 Coupe), this car is powered by Aston Martin. This car also ran well in Barcelona, finishing in 3rd place overall and in class, again far exceeding all expectations.
Ply Placement Visual Aid system, October 2007
We are pleased to announce the commercial availability of our innovative solution for accurately and correctly placing plies in hand-layup manufacture. The PlyMatch™ system is precise, simple to use and is fully portable.
London Development Agency Award, September 2007
Sincere thanks to the LDA (London Development Agency) for their Award to Anaglyph's Ply Placement Visual Aid System project, as one of the most innovative of 2006/07. In the photo, Anaglyph's MD Dr George Kretsis is receiving the award from Lord Winston and LDA's Rebecca Shepheard.
The outcome of the project, the new PlyMatch™ technology, is now commercially available.
Michigan State University Formula Racing Team sponsors, September 2007
Anaglyph are sponsoring the team from Michigan State University for this year's Formula Racing competition, and our Laminate Tools software will be used in the design of the racing car that will represent the team. Adam Zemke, Operations Consultant for the team, said: "In the exceedingly competitive realm of Formula SAE, composite structures are vital to a team's success. Each team is given the task of designing, manufacturing, validating, and racing a new car annually. Laminate Tools will enable our team to be confident in the validation of our composites, thus lowering the time and cost involved in production. The composite visualization technology offered by Laminate Tools will enable quality manufacturing, giving Michigan State University a competitive edge."
Anaglyph becomes ANSYS Enhanced Solution Partner, July 2007
Following our successful implementation and application of the Ansys interface for Laminate Tools, our relationship with Ansys has now been formalised. Anaglyph has become an Ansys Enhanced Solution Partner, reflecting our dedication to maintaining and further developing interfaces between our software solutions and Ansys.
Anaglyph now supplies NX Nastran, May 2007
NX Nastran (a Siemens PLM Software product, formerly UGS) is now available through Anaglyph. NX Nastran is a powerful Finite Element Analysis environment that major manufacturers worldwide rely on for their critical engineering computing needs. It is a natural complement to our Laminate Tools package, delivering a complete solution for design, analysis and manufacture of composite structures. Visit our NX Nastran product pages for more information.
Laminate Tools support for Ansys
Version 3.1 was yet another significant move forward for Laminate Tools. Support for the native Ansys input and output file formats has been added (Feb 2006), but also overall functionality has been significantly improved with features such as sub-layup definitions. With the optional aid of a CAD system, or of a supported Finite Element Analysis package, numerous tasks can be achieved that address the design, analysis and manufacture stages of composite product design. Full details in the LT product pages.
CoDA version 3.3
The latest version 3.3 of CoDA introduced:
- better support for Sandwich Panels and Beams, with calculations for honeycomb properties and local skin buckling modes.
- interactive calculations for Laminate moisture uptake, heat diffusion and GRP fatigue.
CoDA British Units variant
CoDA is also available in a variant that works with British units, as opposed to the original that works with SI units. The new variant will make CoDA even more attractive to the US market. Data files remain unchanged, so that data can be seamlessly shared by the two variants.
Agents for Italy
We are pleased to announce that SmartCAE are now our Laminate Tools agents for Italy (May 2004). We wish them every success and we are confident that they will promote and support Laminate Tools in the best possible way.
