The de facto global standard in Electro-deposition paint (Elpo)
ED Designer
ED Designer is a powerful tool to provide benefits in various fields of electrostatic paint deposition. It predicts paint thickness on car bodies as well as electric potential (voltage) and electric current in a paint bath. The application includes predicting the effect of changing car body part design, redesigning a paint bath and changing paint sequence, and so on.
car bodies show paint thickness and the contour on anodes (rectangular parts) shows electric currency.
Features
ED Designer helps designing car body parts to maximize paint performance in a rational and time-saving way. It reduces development cost and time dramatically.
Benefits
ED Designer enables to save development time and cost and achieve better paint quality.
Running simulations on computers reduces cost on making and repairing stumping dies.
Efficient paint procedures can be simulated, which results in improving paint usage and reducing paint cost.
Efficient painting, simulated by ED Designer, also results in reducing car body weight and improving gas mileage.
The Numerical Approach
ED Designer uses electro-potential diffusion equation to predict electro-potential distribution in a paint bath. Electro-current is calculated sequentially based on electro-potential gaps on surfaces and electro-resistance due to paint film on surfaces. Correlations, which is a function of electric currency on surfaces, is used to calculate the growth ratio of film thickness. The temperature effect on the film growth ratio is also taken into account.
The Analytical Model
Diffusion equation is used to represent electric potential. Boundary conditions are defined in the following ways
Anodes
Time-variable applied voltage on anodes can be defined to represent realistic anode potential history. When multiple anodes are represented in a paint bath model, potential history of each anode can be defined respectively.
Cathodes
Electric potential on cathodes (car body parts) is set to zero (grounded). Electric resistance on cathode surfaces is calculated sequentially based on a function of the paint material and film thickness.
Other surfaces
Adiabatic is assumed.
The Numerical Procedure
Calculations are based on finite-volume methods with unstructured grids.
Available mesh types include quadrilateral, tetrahedral, triangular prism, pyramid and hexahedral grid.
Multidimensional polynomial enables accurate interpolation between nodes.
The point Gauss-Seidel methodology is used for numerical procedures.
Algebraic multi-grid approach is used for better convergence.
Our Services
We offer various services on electro-deposition paint (Elpo). Benefits of using ED Designer and our services have been proven by many Japanese car companies as well as major car companies in North America, Europe and South Korea. Our services include;
ED Designer training (preparing volume meshes, running calculations, post process)
Contract simulations
Consultation on electro-deposition paint (Elpo)
Customized development of software
We suggest solutions based on customers' needs. For more information, please contact us.
Links
Air Pocket detection tool
System Requirements
IBM PC compatible （Windows NT, 2000, XP）
PC-UNIX （LINUX, Solaris）
EWS （Sun, SGI, IBM, HP, DEC, etc）
Network of workstations or Multiple CPU computers
(IBM SP2, Intel Paragon, SGI Power Challenge, SGI/Cray Origin 2000, Cray T3D/T3E, etc）
Please contact us for more information.