IBM Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

Scania’s ‘King of the Road’ truck gets

new V8 engine with CATIA power

Scania manufactures trucks, which are
regarded by many as being in a class of
their own. Founded in Sweden in 1891,
Scania has built and delivered more than
1 million vehicles and claims the strongest
brand name in Europe for heavy trucks
with a gross weight of more than 16
tonnes. The Scania truck is renowned for
its ability to haul commercial goods and
construction materials over long
distances and is affectionately known as
the ‘King of the Road’.
Last year Scania sold nearly 47,000 heavy
trucks, 95 per cent of which were for
export markets. Truck sales accounted for
almost 60 per cent of its total revenue. In
addition to trucks, Scania manufactures
city, intercity buses and tourist coaches,
plus engines for industrial and marine
applications. With 25,800 employees and
production facilities in Europe and Latin
America, Scania products are marketed
in over 100 countries worldwide.
In truck terms, performance is all about
productivity. Having more than enough
power when driving up-hill boosts
average speed, as does a powerful
engine-brake or a retarder going down
hill. A truck with superior performance
makes life easy for the driver and
ultimately means that a load arrives at its
destination faster, safer and more
economically.
Two versions of the new engine are
offered (480 hp and 580 hp) in the new
range-topping R164 truck, which itself is
available in a large number of configura-
tions for long-haulage and heavy haulage
duties.
CATIA** at the core of SCANIA’s
product development process
Since 1985 Scania has depended on
CATIA as its core development system for
chassis, cabs, transmission and engines.
Today there are over 350 IBM
RS/6000* workstations running CATIA
Version 4 at Scania’s development centre
in Södertalje, Sweden.
“One of the benefits of CATIA”, explains
Göran Hammarberg manager for
Technology Development, “is the broad
range of functionality for product
development. We are also pleased that
CATIA is so widely used in the automotive
industry.

Quality and performance have always

been of uppermost importance to Scania
and despite high customer expectations,
Scania always strives to ‘surprise and
delight’ when introducing a new product.
Such is the case with its new 16-litre V8
truck engine, which offers outstanding
performance and further extends
Scania’s appeal, particularly for pulling
heavy loads.
It gives us confidence that the tools we
need are robust and will continue to be
developed. We use Catia as our
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
backbone. This avoids unnecessary
translations and ensures that every
product designer can work in parallel. The
result is that we work more efficiently and
we reach a higher level of quality in our
product”.
The inimitable sound of a V8
Scania’s range of high performance truck
engines includes 9,11 and 12 litre in-line 6
cylinder units, plus a top-of-the-range V8
which powers, with that inimitable,
rumbling sound, around one in five of its
trucks. Since the launch of the first
generation V8 in 1969, over 150,000 units
have been produced, many still powering
trucks after 4.5 million kilometres of use. It
is renowned for being rugged, reliable
and powerful and accounts for over 60
per cent of trucks sold with V8’s in Europe.
In 1993, Scania predicted that a
replacement would be needed in the year
2000, in anticipation of environmental
legislation that had yet to be defined.
Scania chose to design the engine
in-house and did not need to rely upon
specialist engine consultancies. By 1995
the configuration was fixed and a team of
50 designers began work to develop a
totally new
engine while, at the same time, adopting a
modular system approach. The result is
that 20 per cent of the 190 major
components are interchangeable with the
6 cylinder engines. This has obvious
benefits, not the least the minimised
training needed for service engineers.
Clearly Project Manager Mikael
Björkstrand is delighted with the results.
“We began producing the new V8 in
February and selling it in trucks from
22 May 2000. We build 75 per cent of the
value of the engine ourselves. Just
ancillaries, such as alternators and
starter motors are outsourced.
Initial customer
feedback has been
excellent and confirms
our belief that this sets
new standards in the
industry by offering
exceptional performance,
excellent economy and
compliance with the very latest
Euro 3 environmental legislation. It
meets the needs of our demanding
customers, by carrying on the V8-tradition
whilst building on image and prestige.
This is, without doubt, the most powerful
Euro 3 engine on the European market.”
CATIA gives Scania the edge
“We continually reviewed
“We continually reviewed and improved
our usage of CATIA throughout the five
year development period for new engine”,
explains Petter Johnson,
responsible for Solid
Modelling
Methodologies at
Scania. We
attended
Powertrain
methodology
training provided
by Dassault
Systemes in late
1997 and decided
to implement
multi-model
techniques as soon as
possible.
We were continually improving all the time.
For example, we reduced the time taken
to model a cylinder block by 75 per cent
and used the time saved to explore twice
as many design alternatives than were
previously possible. Similarly we have
been able to reduce the time needed to
mesh an engine block from six months to
two days, thanks to the new meshing
techniques, better design preparation
and also the close integration between
design and analysis”.
“All our designers were trained in and
encouraged to use CATIA
Generative Part Stress
(GPS). This was
particularly
successful since
no modifications
were necessary
before for the
analysis could start.
They simply added
boundary conditions and
clicked ‘go’. Even after the
designs had been passed across to our
expert analysts they continued to use
GPS before final simulations were made
using specific solvers interfaced to CATIA
such as Elfini, Fire and Abaqus”.
and improved our usage of
CATIA throughout the
5 year development period
for new engine”
Petter Johnson, responsible for Solid
Modelling Methodologies at Scania.
The philosophy at Scania is to have one
database and one data source for all
components that are modelled with CATIA
in 3D. “The virtual representation is the
master,” says Lars Björkefall, responsible
for Digital Prototyping. ‘We have
everything in CATIA and can review
anything from the complete truck right
down to an individual component. When
holding internal review meetings or when
 up fast.” However, The future is CATIA V5
we never forget Scania is continuously reviewing new
that simply tools, as and when they become
implementing available. CATIA version 5 licenses have
technology is not been purchased for various departments
sufficient on its where Catia has not been previously
own. In fact we used. “We see CATIA Version 5 as the way
have three main forward” says Kent R Johansson, also
aspects to our project Managing Scania’ s migration to
philosophy. Catia version 5.
In addition to
technology, we The Windows NT** platform and the ‘ease
attach just as of use’ are major attractions for us and we
much importance have decided to implement CATIA in a
to our people and step-by-step approach starting with
to the methods we complimentary areas before moving into
use. mainstream processes. “For example in
meeting suppliers we use CATIA for digital the area of technical illustration, it’s
reviews. More and more we are possible to save 50 per cent in time and
integrating system suppliers into our
“The virtual representation we are now able to reuse all the geometry
digital processes. In some cases, the 3D is the master, we have the designers already have created.
model forms part of the contract. For everything in CATIA and
example, electrical wiring and harnesses
suppliers are given the E3D CATIA model can review anything from
as the legal master to supply against”. the complete truck right
Scania has worked with virtual product
down to an individual
definitions for many years and now claims component.”
world-class competence in this area. A
high level of skill has been essential, since Lars Björkefall, responsible for Digital
several vehicles have now been built on a Prototyping.
modular basis which results in fewer but
more intelligent components and with
production geared in response to
incoming customer orders. This approach
– which means that an unlimited range of
variants can be made on the same
production line – required powerful
computer support in order to achieve
good product quality. Modular design
gives economies of scale even low levels
of series production. Building trucks in
response to incoming customer orders
means that every vehicle is configured to
meet not only a unique set of customer
requirements but also legislation for a
particular market.
Kent R Johansson, responsible for
Methodology pre-study adds “We are
proud of our capabilities and our
integrated solution. Today some of the car
manufacturers may be viewed as the best
exploiters of CATIA, but we are catching
 IBM Product Lifecycle Management marketing team
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92066 Paris La Defense
France

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