Auto Parts Asia — October 2017

AutoPartsAsia | OCTOBER 2017 | 31

having any weight penalty. We have
tools and techniques which the
OEMs can use to reduce the weight
of the vehicle. Altair can also teach
them how to cut weight. Nowadays
everyone is gunning for light-
weighting to carry more weight or for
better performance,” Kumar said.

When asked whether EVs will be
more compatible for connected
vehicles compared to their traditional
counterparts, he said that it is very
unlikely. “Compatibility for connected
vehicles will be just another factor
of EVs. Whether it is EV or Internal
Combustion Engine vehicle, today all
of them have enough communication
capabilities to be compatible. So
electricity is just one of the driving
forces of the product. It is not
necessary that because I want a
connected vehicle I should go for an
EV,” Kumar said.

It is a known fact that the number
of moving parts in an EV will be
1/10 or 1/20 that of the traditional
vehicle. The cabin will be quieter
hence the unwanted noise will be
evident in EVs. Altair supports OEMs
in reduction of Noise, Vibration and
Harshness(NVH).

“We provide this service with a

combination of two things. One is

the software which will allow them

to analyse NVH and understand

how the noise or vibration is getting

transmitted. So it is easy to find out

what is contributing to that and what

frequency is causing it. In that case,

you can avoid those frequencies.

That is one method. The other

method is process. We can also

teach them the process of doing

it. We have something called NVH

Director, which will be of great use for

OEMs,” he said.

The NVH Director employs Altair’s

HyperWorks suite of computer-aided

engineering (CAE) tools in a fully

integrated, user-friendly, customisable

form to automate the tasks involved

in NVH analysis. By integrating

the entire process of meshing,

assembly, loadcase set-up, and post-

processing, it dramatically reduces

the full-vehicle NVH simulation time,

freeing CAE engineers to focus

on optimising product design and

performance.

Founded in 1985, Michigan-

headquartered Altair Engineering

is focused on the development and

application of simulation technology

to synthesise and optimise designs,

processes and decisions for

improved business performance. With

more than 2,600 employees, Altair

has over 50 offices in 22 countries,

and serves more than 5,000 corporate

clients across industry segments.

The clientele represents a broad

range of industry verticals, including

automotive, aerospace, government

and defence, heavy equipment and

consumer products. Altair also has

a growing client presence in the life

sciences, financial services, insurance

and energy markets.

Altair, which started India operations

15 years ago for internal outsourcing

of software development and

services, has now over 600

employees in three major locations:

Bangalore, Chennai and Pune.

The company caters to about 400

marque customers with substantial

contribution to Altair’s global

revenues and has plans to expand its

operations in the country. Probably

India will be the single largest office

for Altair globally.

Kumar said, “Altair is primarily

focusing on developing modelling

and visualisation techniques in its

centres in India. Altair also caters to

the user experience part. These are

the areas of expertise which Altair

is leveraging India for. Other than

our regular structural engineering

products, we have products ready for

Communication, Internet of Things

(IoT) and Data Analytics.”

“The latest addition to the product

basket is Carriots, a complete IoT

application enablement platform

(AEP) to rapidly connect and manage

devices, collect and analyse data and

build intelligent applications together

with enterprise business systems.

Besides, Carriots Analytics speeds

up data visualisation, exploration and

discovery,” he said.

Altair has been making considerable

investments in the recent past to

develop products and services in the

software segment. It plays a vital role

in standardisation while also giving

variety. This journey of transformation

has been very significant for Altair.

“Now, we can even automatically

generate code from a model-based

design. Those tools exist with us. So,

Altair will continue to be a key player

in developing systems which will

have software at its core. However,

we are not an independent vehicle

developer. We are basically helping

our customers create products

that are relevant to changing times.

That is entirely a different ball

game,”Kumar said.

Pavan Kumar