b'Engineer Innovation | Automotive & TransportationWorking from an NX digital twin, the Zbee team used advanced engineering solutions to analyze ideas and optimize the final design. Inegbedion was able to strip the Zbee design down to its bare essentials. He analyzed his composite structure in detailshaving precious grams where needed without sacrificing the structural integrity of the pod. (The Zbee weighs 280 kilograms, so there is minimal need for bulky, expensive and resource-demanding batteries.)Sophisticated simplicity and the micro-factoryAnother Zbee credo is an idea that the team likes to call sophisticated simplicity. This is apparent in the Zbees core design. With only 270 parts, the Zbee is not overdesigned, to say the least. Compared to traditional cars, which contain thousands of parts, the Zbee is designed to be easy to build and maintain while retaining its urban-hip looks and zippy performance. Creating the Zbee was a lot of hard work, but when the team had the first working model, the next question was how to build it. Since the Zbee was based on composites and a simple design it pointed the team towards a new and different business model: the micro-factory.If you have a product that has only 270 Inegbedion, who is an analysis andparts, you could have a resource-efficient computer-aided design (CAD) engineer,production facility, explains Christoffer using Simcenter 3D software alongSveder, sales and marketing at Clean with the Fibersim portfolio, bothMotion. And if the vehicle is an out-of-Siemens products. He states, Compositethe-box solution, why couldnt the technology is one of the most effectivefactory be like that as well?measures for managing weight yet retaining even better stiffness propertiesThe Zbee digital factorythan materials like aluminum and steel.But going from a visionary business You can go way down in the weight ofmodel to a digital factory to a physical your products. And sometimes it is a lotfactory required some simulation work more beautiful.from another young development engineer. Samuel Johansson s job was to There is a seamless connection fromdesign a digital factory twin for Zbee your first design in NX to storing yourproduction using Tecnomatix Plant data in Teamcenter to doing yourSimulation software, NX Line Designer analysis in Simcenter, says Inegbedion.and Teamcenter Process Simulator, all It looks like one software. You canpart of the Siemens portfolio.change things directly in Simcenter 3D, your simulation software, yet you areI made some factory simulations to working with your NX model. You dontcome up with the most optimal factory have human interference like movinglayout, says Johansson. We tested over things around or converting from one100,000 different variants using the format or another. You dont lose dataTecnomatix Plant Simulation software. It intelligenceis quite powerful and easy. We could 72'