[dropcap]M[/dropcap]eneta is on the move. That’s the message from Kim Oestergaard, a 25-year veteran of the automotive business. He is the head of Meneta Germany, Meneta Advanced Shim Technology Denmark, and Meneta North America.
Meneta is investing in its business in the United States and increasing its local NVH testing capacity. According to Oestergaard, Meneta realized that it needed to step up its presence and customer service in the U.S. New hires have brought in experts who understand shims and can sit across the table from application engineers.
Oestergaard also points to the Meneta production facility in Jackson, Tennessee. It has been running for six years and is currently undergoing IATF 16949 certification.
Oestergaard, however, is most excited about the Meneta Black Box™. That’s the company’s name for its shim simulation tool, which it built with Abaqus Unified FEA technology.
With more than 20,000 possible combinations of steel, adhesive, and rubber, it can be very costly to figure out by trial and error the right shim for a particular vehicle. But “with the Black Box™, we can predict the damping behavior and lower overall calculation time and cost,” says Oestergaard.
The company dedicated more than a year to developing the technology, which has been operational for about three months. The process included “a complete fingerprinting of all our material. We need to know it almost down to the atom” Oestergaard says.
The simulation has proven itself to be remarkably accurate, but Meneta is not abandoning its NVH Dynos, which are built in-house in Denmark and located in Meneta facilities around the world.
All shims are still tested the traditional way in the NVH Dynos, and customers receive a full NVH testing report.
Oestergaard stresses that the shim simulation software is directly implementable in a commercial FEA code. The Meneta Black Box™ is available for direct customers, but also OEMs and brake system manufacturers.
Meneta will explain its shim sim in depth during one of the technical sessions at the upcoming SAE Brake Colloquium. “Innovative Shim Implementation in Squeal-Analysis Models” will be presented by Halewijn Stikvoort. Oestergaard and other Meneta staff members will be on-hand to speak with current and potential customers.
[pullquote]With more than 20,000 possible combinations of steel, adhesive, and rubber, the Meneta Black Box™ eases a costly trial and error approach when finding the right shim for a particular vehicle.[/pullquote]
According to Oestergaard, Meneta’s goal is to replicate in the United States the success the company has had in Europe, China, and India. Earlier this year, Meneta won contracts to provide shims for General Motors, Ford, Honda, Daimler Chrysler, and Volkswagen/Audi in the U.S. Oestergaard is confident this is a sign of more good things to come.
Attend the CAE Technical Presentation “Innovative Shim Implementation in Squeal Analysis Models” by Halewijn Stikvoort at the SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition on Wednesday, October 17, Session Code: BC104, Room: Salon G-L.
Earlier in The Brake Report: A preview of the 2018 SAE Brake Colloquium
