Clearing Up Misunderstandings About FEA and Exploring Its Benefits
Finite element analysis (FEA) is an essential tool when creating field-ready, high-performing equipment. However, this technical strategy is too often misused.
When it is used well, FEA reduces your development timelines and protects you from expensive redesigns. But FEA can also be used poorly. FEA software can deliver results that may seem effective on the surface, yet don’t perform as intended.
Success depends on the expertise of your chosen product development engineers. If you’re investing in creating new equipment or machinery for your clients or your internal processes, FEA, and your FEA specialists, are your differentiators and competitive edge.
FEA Is a Must For New Product Development
FEA tests your product design digitally, prior to creating a physical version. After your product development engineers have generated a 3D model of your desired equipment or component, they can simulate real-world conditions to determine how it will perform under stress, such as force, load, vibration, and other conditions. This process allows your engineers to understand whether the physical design will perform as expected and where failure could occur.
Access to a new product development company that knows how to leverage FEA is priceless. You gain a level of understanding that is otherwise unavailable and informs revisions that can be made while your product still exists in the digital world.
Mistakes New Product Development Teams Make With FEA
“Running FEA” is not the same as applying it with deep experience. Commercial FEA software is accessible to anyone with an interest in it, and most trained engineers have some experience applying FEA to a 3D model. In fact, AI has made it all too easy to do this within moments. Yet, if you have any experience with AI, you know that it’s only as good as your approach. A rudimentary attempt at FEA isn’t the same as recognizing whether the simulation actually reflects reality. This requires significant technical skill.
Additionally, many engineers view FEA as a final box to check before production. If an inexperienced user fails to implement FEA with precision and technical ability and then gives the “all clear,” flaws will be embedded in the product and appear during operation.
How To Ensure FEA Delivers Significant Value In the New Product Development Process
Avoiding an engineering team that makes a basic attempt at FEA late in the design process comes down to this: vet your team for their experience with this FEA and ask how they use it.
Superior product design and development service teams view FEA iteratively, meaning it is applied repeatedly at certain points in the development process. For example, a knowledgeable new product development team might approach FEA this way:
- At the concept stage, to evaluate viability.
- During material selection, to compare material choices and analyze their performance.
- During design, to measure slight changes without having to create physical prototypes.
- Before production, to validate the design is ready for manufacturing.
Circumstances like these allow a deeply experienced engineer to demonstrate their technical prowess and commitment to your business’ most critical need: equipment success.
What To Look For In FEA-Capable New Product Development Services
When evaluating a product development firm for new or custom product development, the discussion surrounding FEA should be as robust as any other need.
Consider these criteria to ensure the team you’ve chosen approaches FEA with sophistication:
- Deep industry experience with a wide range of equipment, which brings a broader perspective to each project.
- Willingness to question design assumptions to rule out potential equipment challenges.
- A process that integrates FEA with hand calculations, rather than treating simulation as a standalone method.
- Transparent project management that provides communication about progress at every stage.
Your business prides itself on making smart decisions. Understanding how your new product design and development service team handles FEA and accepting nothing less than excellence aligns with your business strategy.
In-House Engineering Teams Often Need Outside FEA Support
A significant portion of the work we do at Finite Engineering comes from manufacturers whose in-house engineering teams are already committed to other projects. We value these partnerships and admire how these engineering teams understand their products, clients, and manufacturing environment.
We are always willing to lend a hand with our expertise, including FEA. When internal engineering resources are focused on keeping products moving through production, we can step in to run FEA validation on existing designs or support a team that is working to expand or refine a product line. Your internal engineering team gets full ownership of a successful product and the customer relationship. We simply step in to provide the engineering capacity that makes your work possible.
FEA is embedded in how we approach every client engagement. Our new product development service team has spent decades validating designs across heavy equipment, medical devices, industrial manufacturing, and more than 40 other industries. We believe that FEA is a discipline to perfect, and the teams that choose us experience the outcomes they expect.
