INTEGRATED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FROM CONCEPT TO SERIES PRODUCTION
Regardless of where you stand along the value chain or the product development cycle, the FORWARD team supports your product development with a holistic perspective from the first concept draft through validation and series production:
- Focused alignment of product design to customer, market, and regulatory requirements
- Selection of future-proof materials and technologies with regard to the planned EU directives for emission targets and circular economy
- Material and production appropriate component development from the start
- Proven development methodology and industry leading development tools
- Risk management through robust cost and equipment forecasts early in the process
- Reduced testing and validation through virtual product validation
- Comprehensive analysis and reporting support sound decision-making foundation
- Single point of contact for prototyping, testing and supplier management
- Independent and flexible service with a strong global network
- Integration of sustainability at a very early stage of the product development process
The FORWARD approach to product development ensures resource efficient and cost-effective implementation of new and emerging technologies to meet and exceed your goals.
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MIXED MATERIAL STRUCTURES IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
The much-quoted “right material in the right place” compels us to explore the potential of structures which bring together different materials. As a specialized engineering services provider of fiber reinforced polymer and composite solutions, utilizing state of the art industrial manufacturing technologies, our customers benefit from our expertise in the successful implementation of novel cost-effective series application solutions:
- Focused alignment of product design with customer, market and regulatory requirements
- Consulting on materials: selection, benchmark, properties and characteristic values
- Accompanying material characterization and creation of CAE material cards
- Material- and production-oriented component development up to series production
- Simulative validation of material-specific properties, e.g. crash behavior, fatigue strength, joining technology, etc.
- Risk management through holistic cost consideration and preparation of life cycle assessments (LCA) at an early stage of the process
- Reduced testing and validation effort through virtual product simulation
- Definition of test series and component tests throughout the entire development process up to series homologation, including procurement of prototypes and test specimens and execution of the respective validation tests
- Independent and flexible service with a strong global network
Holistic BIW
- Methodical multi-material design and optimization
- Optimization of crash performance
- Evaluation of different production scenarios
- Definition of joining techniques
- Sustainability and cost engineering
Part
- Cost-based, performance and sustainability driven Design for Manufacturing from concept through series production
- Development & Validation Program Management
- Evaluation of selected manufacturing technologies and production scenarios
Validation
- CAE: Static, Dynamic and Crash Analysis at Component and Vehicle Level
- CAE Methodology for Composites and Joining Techniques
- Process Simulation
- Prototyping
- Hardware Testing
Process
- Technology Benchmark & Selection
- Feasibility study and market potential analysis
- Circular Economy Optimization
- Cost assessment of the entire value chain
- Ramp-up Trials, Quality & Process Validation
Material
- Material Benchmark & Selection
- Feasibility studies and market potential analysis
- Standardized Composite Material Characterization & Testing
- Design for Sustainability
CUSTOMER FOCUSED SOLUTIONS
Since our founding, the FORWARD team has prided itself on a clean sheet of paper approach to problem solving. Starting with the fundamentals and ensuring a clear and objective understanding of the customer requirements, technical requirements and regulatory requirements are key to the success of our projects. Combined with our continuously expanding material and process technology knowledgebase, the FORWARD team is uniquely capable of supporting the development of novel fiber reinforced polymer and composite solutions across a broad range of industries being driven by new and unique challenges.
Automotive
- CASE – Connected Autonomous Shared Electrified
- Increased safety requirements by legislators and consumer protection
- Rapidly shifting customer requirements
- Sustainability
Reduction of Waste – Industry transitioning from a linear to a circular economy
CO2 Emissions – Decarbonization
Vertical Mobility / Aerospace
- New applications and use-cases with disruptive approaches and rapidly evolving requirements during the development process
- Driving cost efficient production through automotive and aviation industry technology transfer
- Targeted risk minimization leveraging proven partners and technologies from established industries
- Flexible scalable designs to address uncertainty and volatility in production volume requirements
- Stage gated approach reduces initial development costs and generates rapid project results combined with agile project management to seamlessly adapt to new requirements and milestones
Energy Storage Systems
- Energy storages systems bring together a complex mix of mechanical, electrical, thermal and environmental topics governed by regulatory, technical and customer requirements
- Achieving optimal cost, mass and performance balance requires a deep understanding of the primary structure’s requirements and its interaction with the energy storage system
- Energy density and, the associated stored potential energy of the system, place particularly high demands on the design, materials of construction and, manufacturing technologies
- Whether High-pressure tank or high-voltage storage, the requirements of safety, function and weight are complex
INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCT DESCRIPTION.
