MapleSim and Heavy Mobile Machinery - Maplesoft

MapleSim and Heavy Mobile Machinery

MapleSim brings flexibility to your heavy equipment designs with virtual models that accurately represent your production environment, and speed up design, testing and diagnostics.

  Use MapleSim for faster, more agile product development


VIDEO: Modeling Heavy Mobile Machinery using MapleSim


Using a MapleSim digital model of your heavy mobile machinery, you can introduce agility into your design process and lock down core design concepts before you build an expensive prototype.

  • Accelerate product development – use virtual prototypes to try out design changes and make production decisions at an earlier phase, when correction costs are lower.
  • Reduce time spent exploring usage scenarios and customizations - with a virtual model of your cylinders, links and booms, requirements and parameters can be changed in minutes.
  • Identify machine operation issues - built-in MapleSim analysis tools help identify design flaws and motion control issues, to prevent these problems from occurring in the first place.

MapleSim lets you add fidelity and simulate interactions across multiple engineering disciplines in one flexible modeling environment.

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  Use MapleSim for a simpler simulation workflow


Modeling your heavy mobile machinery with MapleSim provides an easy means for integrating simulation into your existing development process.

  • Rapidly develop multibody simulations of your mechanism, either from a “back-of-a-napkin” sketch or by importing the mechanism assembly from your CAD tool.
  • Determine and test the required joint and cylinder motions to give the desired payload or end-effector motion profile.
  • Test your control strategies and connect your MapleSim model to common control development tools by exporting it as an FMU compatible file, or as standalone C code, or by setting up a direct EtherNet/IP link.
  • Right-size the actuator components (hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders, motors, gears, bearings etc.) based on the dynamic loads due to inertia, friction and driven motion.
  • Extend the use of your virtual prototype using MapleSim Insight and allow non-experts to explore, visualize, and test new scenarios.

See how to MapleSim models can improve your product design and help answer "what-if" questions about your operations.

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  Use MapleSim to improve your equipment performance

As the heavy mobile machinery industry gets more competitive, more is required of your existing hardware. MapleSim lets you explore and test your equipment model with built-in analysis tools, helping you push your existing equipment further.

  • Analyze the response of mechanisms as part of optimizing performance, component sizing, eliminating vibrations, and understanding design interactions.
  • Integrate actuator models with physical mechanisms for virtual testing of an entire machine.
  • Identify stability thresholds and avoid failure conditions for cylinders, gears and product linkages using MapleSim’s built-in apps for common analytical methods such as vibration analysis, sensitivity analysis, and optimization.
  • Click here to see more of the interactive analysis templates included in MapleSim.
Are you trying to solve performance issues with your heavy equipment?

We offer full-service solutions for diagnosing, fixing, and optimizing machine performance.

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  Fast-track your problem solving


Maplesoft's full-service solutions provide a simple path to simulation of heavy machinery such as loaders, mobile cranes, telehandlers, and more - no previous modeling experience required!

Our experts work with your team to understand your project, and then build a virtual prototype for you to use to diagnose, fix, and optimize machine performance.

  • We supply an easy-to-use but powerful simulation platform to run your initial model and provide 3-D visualizations and debugging capabilities.
  • You can connect directly to common automation platforms and quickly see the benefits of virtual commissioning.

  Industry Examples

Rotary Telehandler – Virtual prototype and design analysis:

Reach trucks that are required to cover rough terrain will often use telescopic booms as a light, efficient way to lift, move and place goods around warehouses. This Rotary Telehandler example was developed from a system-level model in MapleSim to represent a 4-wheeled vehicle equipped with a flexible telescopic boom-arm acting under hydraulic actuation to extend, retract and lower. When used with a forklift connection, the rotary telehandler was able to raise and carry merchandise on a skid around the warehouse, before placing it in a different location.

The MapleSim multi-domain model was created to be actuated by a hydraulic cylinder, with a multibody frame representing the extended telescopic boom. The model was used to develop an app for easy parameter analysis, to create a 3D visualization to share with other teams, and to evaluate control strategy options. The simulation was able to address the following design requirements:

  • The stability conditions of the telescopic boom when moving and under load
  • The maximum deflection of the telescopic boom arm
  • The range of pressures of the hydraulic cylinder during standard operation

Recorded Webinar: Modeling and Simulation of Hydraulic Systems in MapleSim

XCMG - Design of a new aerial work platform:

XCMG investigated virtual engineering solutions as a means to speed up product development and offer highly- optimized equipment to their customers. They collaborated with Maplesoft to improve the development of a new aerial work platform. As a product used by individuals in construction, the aerial work platform by XCMG had to meet strict safety and performance standards.

By choosing to apply virtual commissioning, XCMG planned to create a digital model and validate their control strategies by testing them on MapleSim’s high-fidelity, virtual platform. Engineers at XCMG imported their CAD models and used MapleSim for the creation of a 3-D multibody machine model, and added further model components, including joints, sliders, cylinders, links, and more.

At this stage in the design, XCMG engineers could visualize 3-D simulations of their aerial work platform’s multibody dynamics, and perform any necessary design iterations.

The virtual test platform allowed engineers to optimize multiple aspects of their design virtually, long before the expensive process of physical prototyping was required. By running simulations in MapleSim and integrating the model with their control software tools, XCMG could optimize their control strategies, improve their machine’s performance, and ensure safety requirements – all at a fraction of the time required compared to traditional approaches.

Read more at: Using Virtual Commissioning for a New, Competitive Aerial Work Platform

Find out how MapleSim models can improve your heavy equipment designs.

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