Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Consulting Services

When you are racing against time or facing new technical challenges, you can quickly and conveniently strengthen your own engineering resources with our expertise. Wilde has a large team of professionally qualified staff and significant experience in solving a wide range of problems using leading FEA technology, from structural stress and thermal applications to metalforming and plastics injection moulding simulation. As we serve most engineering industries, including automotive, aerospace, oil & gas, nuclear and process, we are able to offer you insight based on a broad depth of knowledge. We always respect client confidentiality but are also happy to sign specific agreements confirming our non-disclosure status.

Flexibility is the key to our service. We run projects as short a half a day for a simple verification exercise to multi-year contracts to support and optimise new product developments. Most of our work is typically undertaken within our office, while maintaining close contact with your team regarding progress and technical issues. However, we can also provide staff secondments if you would prefer to add additional resource and expertise to use your own in-house software – from a few days to over a year. Indeed, our analysis solutions can combine software and services, providing you with both leading products and skilled engineering resources to rapidly develop your in-house simulation capability. This is often linked closely to our training services, helping to tutor and mentor your staff on real live projects.

“The FEA method is the most powerful technique available to investigate engineering and physical phenomena. It can provide an unparalleled insight into physical behaviour, enabling robust and efficient solutions to engineering problems.” John Dennis, Technical Director – FEA

How Can You Start?
Simply contact us by email or phone for an informal discussion of your requirements with no-obligation. From an initial phone call we can often give you an idea of price and time scales. With some details and a CAD model (if you have one available), we can send you a scope of work and a formal quotation.

• Train Bogie Members – weight minimisation studies.
• Channel Tunnel – design of shotcrete lining in the NATM.
• Steel Rolling Mill – consolidation settlement prediction.
• Forged Components – validation & die stress analysis.
• Human Teeth – simulation of laser treatment.
• Automotive BIW – deep drawing feasibility studies.
• Aircraft Interiors – analysis of load transfer to the airframe.
• Off-Road Vehicles – assessment of fabricated structures.
• Nuclear Industry – cracking analysis of quasi-brittle materials.
• Pressure Vessels – analysis to BS5500.
• Automotive Suspension – redesign of components to satisfy OEM performance requirements.
• Electronic Consumer Devices – simulation of drop tests to regulatory requirements.
• Artificial Hip Joint – design review of insertion of cementless cup hip implant.
• Power Transmission – prediction of loads in flexible couplings

“Everything about Wilde FEA exuded first class quality from the moment John Dennis came to visit us to listen to our requirements. Then using Wilde’s extensive experience to provide Darchem with advice on the most cost and time effective options available for the analysis, whilst retaining accurate and robust results. The end report, results and the time scale in which this was achieved, further confirmed Wilde FEA’s quality of service.” Engineering Manager, Darchem Engineering

“A timely, efficient cost effective solution.” Engineering Manager, Contitech Beattie

“We’d like to thank you for your help with this project. Getting such concise and helpful information back will ultimately help in our quest to buy the ANSYS software." Technical Manager, Victor Lighting

“We gained a lot from our visit and are in the process of putting it into action here at CPI. We hope and feel sure there will be future scope to work with you again on other projects that the company will be involved with and will look to contact Wilde as and when those projects arrive.” Technical Director, Compressor Products International

“I was very satisfied with the end result and manner of FEA Wilde carried out for us, their input was invaluable to the project design review, they played a major part in obtaining our goal." Senior Engineer, Global Gas Company

“This has been a very productive and informative piece of work from my point of view. It has shed some very encouraging light on the expected behaviour of the larger scale devices and I am very optimistic about the future of the concept. Thank you for managing to combine competence with charm, it’s been a pleasure. I do indeed hope to work with Wilde again in the future." Managing Director, Oleotec Ltd.

“The job was delivered on time with a very proactive approach from their engineers. Subsequent tests on the machine have proven the model to be accurate and allowed the design to develop." Technical Manager, BOC Edwards

“….thank you again for all your hard work with our project. We are very satisfied with the work produced and I am pleased that we have furthered our understanding of our product. I believe this is an important step in advancing our technical information and I look forward to working with you again in the future.” Technical Manager, Gantry Rail Ltd

“Wilde quickly understood the scope of the analysis and defined precisely the engineering information that would be required from Plextek to allow the work to proceed. The product design was modified on the basis of the analysis. Samples subsequently passed rigorous environmental testing including vibration and drop testing before the design was released for high volume production." Plextek Limited

“It was very useful to us to get a feeling for how the seal behaves from before fixing to fixed. We would certainly include this phase for future jobs where we plan to use straight tooling for manufacture.”
Managing Director, Crux Products Limited

“The particular assembly that was evaluated is fitted into what we would consider to be a severe application. The study based on the FE analysis results demonstrated that there were no areas that are significantly highly stressed which in turn gives confidence with similar designs fitted to less demanding applications. The study that Wilde performed for us gives us confidence to look for similar type of assistance in the future.” Rotator Design/Application Manager, Helical Technology

After agreeing a scope of work and timescales with yourselves, we can structure the pricing of a project in many ways:

• Fixed Price, against fixed quotation.
• Reimbursable.
• Reimbursable, against target price.
• Call-off contracts
• Staff secondments at an hourly rate

Clear and meaningful communication of results is an essential way we add value to your operations. Various levels of reporting are available:

• Extensive – often required for regulatory authorities, such as NII.
• Standard – Full report, but without the detail of the Extensive report
• Summary – Limited to basic facts, often presented as a Powerpoint presentation.

If your company also uses FEA software, we can also deliver the results databases to enable you to recreate the analysis and investigate the results in-house.

Project meetings are important and encouraged, particularly for complex or design optimisation projects, and can be held at our offices or yours. We also make increasing use of virtual meetings when appropriate via web conferencing services.

The Wilde Group retains senior engineering staff with extensive experience in mechanical and civil structures, including design, analysis and failure investigation studies. Independent third-party assessments are typically undertaken in the following areas:

• Assessment of Designs to Confirm “Fitness for Purpose”
• Peer Review & Independent Assessment of Nuclear Safety Case Documentation – including the critical examination of highly detailed design and analysis studies & reports
• Technical Support in Litigation and Arbitration Cases – technical services are provided to support clients, including Expert Witness representation.

Software has been developed specifically for clients & software suppliers, utilising expertise in a range of programming languages. Projects range from the creation of macros and engineering calculation worksheets to the development of translators between solvers and customised user interfaces.

In conjunction with a strategic partner, Wilde can project manage and undertake combined physical test and FEA/CFD projects. This service includes the measurement and analysis of dynamic strains, loads, vibrations and displacements.

To obtain general material properties, we can put you in touch with a number of test houses. Furthermore, for plastics we have access to the Autodesk Moldflow Test Laboratories in the USA and Australia.

With access to external specialists from a number of universities and consultancies, we can obtain additional expertise and experience to supplement our in-house team as required.

We also have relationships with overseas engineering service teams from India and other countries, stretching back over 20 years. Although all projects are undertaken locally by our UK office based team unless specifically approved by our clients in advance, outsourcing to offshore partners can on occassion offer additional bandwidth if you wish a large project to be completed very quickly. In such cases, responsibility for quality always remains with Wilde and confidentiality is ensured. From our experience, this capability does not typically provide a cost saving as the overall expense is similar to our UK activities due to increased project management, but can offer ‘peak shaving’ benefits to our clients.

If you are considering using Indian-based resources or setting up your own overseas analysis operation, we would be pleased to offer advice.