As part of an ambitious plan to develop a new drive line for its latest digger, Terex Compact Equipment (TCE) decided to do away with a physical prototype and turn instead to advanced simulation and Virtual Reality (VR).

Ian Davies, TCE’s engineering Manager, said: “Our physical prototypes were costing us up to £50,000 each, with each alteration leading to lengthy redesigns.  Costly design mistakes simply don’t happen with VR.  They are spotted and rectified, speedily and without compromise.  This is engineering design at its purest, enabling us to reduce both time-to-market and unit cost.

“An illustration is that it was immediately obvious in the virtual cab that the rear view mirrors had to be repositioned to ensure a good view to the rear of the machine. We redesigned their mounting brackets virtually and checked them out digitally before sending the new design to our prototype workshop.”

PTC’s Division MockUp2000i2 was used to model the digger’s exterior using source data from Computervision’s CADDS5X, but the 3D cabin detail was not available in time.  Therefore, the TCE team looked to one of the foremost advanced visualisation companies, Virtalis, a company with particular expertise in CAD to VR conversion.  Virtalis is also one of the world's most experienced users of PTC's real-time 3D visualisation products, having completed numerous projects since giving input to the beta version of MockUp over a decade ago.

In a mere three months, Virtalis’s 3D modelling team, working closely with TCE engineers, produced a detailed visualisation of the driver’s workstation.  Barry Noble, TCE’s CAD System Administrator explained: “It was important to us that not only should the visualisation be totally accurate in terms of sightlines, but that there should be real-time interaction and control of the digger or backhoe.  The operator wears a VR headset and can not only look round the virtual cabin, but also use the cabin joysticks to realistically control the digger.”

Virtalis used data from the PTC Mock-Up virtual digger system to create the requisite kinematics.  By actuating the cabin joysticks, their movement feels utterly realistic to the driver.  “The integration of these immersive VR technologies with an actual Terex cab seat and identical joy stick controls to those used in the new model has resulted in a virtual driving experience that has stunned all those who have experienced it”, commented Barry.

Once complete, TCE took the virtual digger on a countrywide tour, inviting all their past customers and distributors to try it out.  Many commented that the system would also be useful to train operators in total safety and would negate the need to tie up expensive equipment.

The programme to standardise the new digger’s components is now complete and TCE has sold 3,400 of these vehicles in the last year.  As a result, the company has once more become profit making and its market share continues to grow.

Ian Davies concluded: This exercise has been a tremendous success for both our engineers and our customers.  We have saved an inordinate amount of time and money by missing out the prototype stage.  Potential new ISO standards, such as those for Operator Visibility will mean that virtual mock-ups will have a life beyond the design stage.  Being able to check out sightlines virtually and having the data to back up those findings will save several days’ work.”