Design Review and Advanced Analysis

Our analysis tools

Gear Design
Orbital2 uses Kissoft® for gear macro geometry design. The software enables rapid and accurate evaluation of alternative gear designs for durability, compatibility with existing tooling.

Structural Analysis
Analysis of structural elements is undertaken using Fatigue and classical FEA using ANSYS® and nCode® Designlife. This provides detailed estimates of housings, shafts, fixed and rotating elements. It enables us to optimise designs to reduce weight, cost and size and meet desired installation and life requirements.

Multibody Analysis
Orbital2 uses advanced multi-body finite-element based software SMT MASTA® and CALYX® for determining complex interactions between the transmission components (gears, shafts, bearings, structures). This enables us to understand both quasi-static and dynamic behaviour of the gearbox, to avoid unwanted dynamic effects, and to determine gear microgeometry (e.g. crowning, tip relief, lead correction) where the net effect of component stiffnesses, deflections and clearances can be incorporated. We can also undertake modal analysis of the complete powertrain on request.

Dynamic Gear Phasing
With multi-stage planetary gearboxes it is necessary to avoid unwanted dynamic interactions between stages. Orbital2 uses special software to determine optimal tooth numbers and phasing.