Clash Detection

Clash detection is a crucial step in product development to ensure that different components or component groups of a product do not collide or overlap unexpectedly. The check helps to recognise potential geometric problems at an early stage, thereby safeguarding product quality and avoiding costly errors during the development process. The technological foundations include specialised software and powerful algorithms to calculate the collision-free nature of parts within a system and identify potential conflicts. This analysis enables engineers, constructors and designers to develop effective solutions so that the product can later be assembled without conflicts or errors.

The integration of clash detection enables efficient process optimisation by ensuring that products are delivered on time and within budget. This integration into existing development processes can be achieved in a number of ways. Firstly, it is important to educate the relevant teams and employees about the importance and operational added value. Then, specific process steps should be defined to integrate clash detection into the development workflow, such as defining test times during development or defining the tasks in the team. Finally, it is important to implement a suitable software solution such as Quality Monitor.

Clash detection is already established in various industries such as automotive or aerospace: their purpose is always to uncover undetected collisions or bottlenecks so that the product fits together flawlessly in the end and necessary functional clearances, e.g. for heat transfer or movements, do not lead to problems during operation.

Technological expertise meets practical experience: invenio Virtual Technologies (invenio VT) ensures a conflict-free virtual product with its solutions in the field of collision testing. All interfaces (contacts, overlaps or distance violations) between the components are analysed and examined for problems. In addition to the static clash detection, invenio VT also offers a dynamic clash detection to detect conflicts quickly and reliably, even during movements. In both use cases, the focus is on analysing 3D data and large volumes of data (big data).

The leading algorithms for clash detection from invenio VT are always combined with technical system support, such as Quality Monitor. The neighbourhood search determines all neighbouring components and identifies which component has a relationship with another component. Inheritance ensures that relations that have been evaluated once are not submitted again unless they change.

The experts analyse the calculation results and decide together with the responsible designers on the customer side how the geometric conflicts can be resolved. The end result is a collision-free product, clearances are maintained and the current maturity level of the product is correctly displayed on a daily basis. invenio VT's own artificial intelligence provides the decisive added value.