Design of Weldments Group Order

Once again I was at work late waiting for my FEA to finish so that I could evaluate, make some changes and start it again. This vicious cycle had been going on for nearly a month with no real change in the outcome. Just spinning my wheels with nothing to show for it. Something had to change here; my boss and the project manager were waiting on me to finish so we could move to production.

I went home that night and laid in bed wide awake thinking about this problem and it dawned on me, “What do the hand calculations tell me?” I had done some hand calculations, but not on this particular structural joint. The next morning I walked into my office and performed some simple calculations on the structure and found out that the design was inadequate. I added some material in the right places and ran the FEA again. This time I stayed late, (it took about 8 hours to run) just to see the results, but I knew it would be different.

AND IT WAS!

The problem I had been tinkering around with for a whole month was gone! If you have found yourself in this situation, you are not alone. After this incident, I promised myself that I would learn to be a better engineer and have studied the art and science of making structures. I am now at a point where I know exactly what to look for that I rarely run FEA because I already know what it is going to look like.

Now, I want to share my expertise with you!