GeDy TrAss develops and commercializes an innovative software for the design of mechanical components, with a particular focus on gears. Thanks to the deep know-how developed during the years, GeDy TrAdd conducts consulting and training on the dynamic behavior of mechanical components. The start-up is pre-incubated at I3P and a spin-off of the Politecnico di Torino.

 The entrepreneurial team GeDy TrAss is composed by four mechanical engineers with specific expertise in the field of power transmission. The group led by professor Carlo Rosso was born at the beginning of 2017, within the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department (DIMEAS) at Politecnico di Torino.

Nowadays, due to strict emission regulations it is mandatory on one hand to increase the transmitted power density, on the other hand to reduce the component weight. With this trend, complex dynamics phenomena arise and therefore dynamic analysis becomes crucial during the design phase of high-performance mechanical components. Besides, more and more automotive companies are investing on research and development projects related to hybrid or purely electric powertrain, where the transmission has a much more important role that should avoid power dissipation and noise.

GeDy TrAss commercializes an innovative software for the design of high-performance mechanical components. It is based on two main tools: GearDraft, useful during the blank-sheet pre-design of a mechanical transmission, automatically generates a CAD/FEM interfaceable with other commercial software and OptiMicro, for the micro-geometrical optimization in static and dynamic conditions. The aim of GeDy TrAss is to provide optimized gears both for durability and Noise, Vibration and Harshness phenomena (NVH)

GearDraft provides a first-attempt layout by inserting a limited number of geometrical parameters and operative constraints imposed by the customer. With this purpose, this tool is divided into two sub-elements: the first one is an algorithm that defines the macro-geometries of the gears, whereas the second is a procedure that generates and then exports a first-attempt layout into any CAD commercial software. This tool is powerful because it leaves to the user discretion the possibility to impose the set of constraints on which the algorithm works to skim through the possible layouts. This procedure is valid for automotive, aerospace and industrial transmissions and it is completed by the automatic choice of bearings, rough dimensions of the synchronizers and of the shafts. Simply giving a series of input parameters through an intuitive interface, for instance input torque, maximum spin speed of the gears, transmission ratio and center distance with permitted tolerances, material and minimum number of operative hours, the software provides a first-attempt layout in a few minutes. This allows a re-use of the saved time for the optimization of the elements dimensioned by the parametric algorithm, but it also allows to investigate rapidly about the effective dimensions of the elements for different configuration layouts simply varying the input parameters. Furthermore, GeDy TrAss is not limited to the definition of the macro-geometries (clearances, transmission ratios, gears’ dimensions), but it also provides the best solutions both for durability of the components and dynamic behavior of the transmission.

The other tool, called OptiMicro, features a fast and iterative algorithm for the optimization of the micro-geometry of the gear profiles, guarantying the best compromise in terms of low dynamic overloads, low vibration and therefore noise. The approach that defines the optimal micro-geometry for a specific application of the gears has been patented (IT 201800001328A1).

In particular, firstly a quasi-static approach solves the contact analysis between the gears, taking into account all the flexibility contributions of the bodies. For this aim, a non-Hertzian contact model detects the real areas of contact due to the different curvatures of the bodies and the edge contacts. This methodology allows a drastic reduction of the computational time to obtain the real distribution of pressure between bodies of general shape, passing from hours used by the Finite Element Method (FEM) to a few seconds. Successively, GeDy TrAss performs static and dynamic analyses, considering the varying mesh stiffness, the possibility of contact loss between engaging teeth and torque inversion. The dynamics investigation is an enabling technology that is often neglected by engineers due to prohibitive computational time.

Therefore, GeDy TrAss has designed and produced a test bench that would offer the possibility of testing experimentally the previous code results. The testbed is actually designed for the evaluation of the Transmission Error (TE) in quasi-static conditions for spur, helical, bevel and spiral-bevel gears. At a later stage, the test bench will be implemented to stress analyses and dynamic overloads at high spin speed.

GeDy TrAss software has been developed for all the enterprises that design and use high performance mechanical transmissions, for which even the minimum dispersion of energy can make the difference between a competitive product and a mediocre one. Indeed, GeDy TrAss wants to provide the software both to the large enterprises, through a customized version of the tools, and to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that cannot afford an annual license, through the cloud computing.

 

APPLICATION FIELDS:

• Automotive
• Aerospace
• Industrial
• Wind Energy

 

ADVANTAGES:

• Predictive maintenance, through the use of the software it is possible to find out the transmission critical working frequencies and avoid it during the operations.
• Time-to-market and cost reduction, the software is considered an enabling technology because it permits, thanks to the patented algorithm internally implemented, to obtain the powertrain pre-dimensioning in a limited time comparing with software competitors.
• Possibility to perform complex dynamic analysis for full-flexible bodies in hours instead of months, in order to optimize the powertrain in terms of noise, vibrations, performances and durability.
• Comparison between experimental and virtual results obtained by the use of the software internally developed.

 

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Head of Technology Transfer and Industrial Liaison Area
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