VI-grade boosts product line with NVH Simulators

VI-grade today announced that it has expanded its product line with all NVH Simulation Software and NVH Driving Simulators from sister company Brüel & Kjær. 

Both companies belong to the same business platform – HBK "Hottinger, Brüel & Kjaer" – so are in an ideal position for this alliance. The move opens many opportunities to combine technologies from Brüel & Kjær and VI-grade, in order to deliver unique, high-value solutions to the automotive market. 

As a consequence of this, Brüel & Kjær’s DESKTOP NVH Simulator and FULL VEHICLE NVH Simulator today join VI-grade’s existing Driving Simulator product line, which already boasts the DESKTOP, COMPACT, STATIC and DYNAMIC Simulators (DiM series). 

NVH simulator solutions are vital tools, that help vehicle manufacturers to design and deliver exceptional sound and vibration experience for their customers. The NVH Simulator software enables designers to create and evaluate virtual NVH prototypes, saving them millions on every vehicle program and reducing development time. 

“The NVH Simulator technology is a perfect fit with the VI-grade technology platform, since the purpose and use of the NVH Simulator parallels that of the other VI-grade technologies and simulators,” said Dave Bogema, Product Manager - NVH Refinement, VI-grade. 

“Incorporating the NVH Simulator capabilities into the VI-grade portfolio will enable our customers to engineer multiple vehicle attributes, with an integrated set of simulation tools and simulators. The use and experience of virtual prototypes encompassing NVH, vehicle dynamics, ride and comfort, ADAS, AV and HMI can now be realized in concert, greatly increasing development efficiency across all these attributes.”

“The addition of NVH Simulators into the VI-grade Driving Simulator product family allows us to provide customers with driving simulators for all different applications, ranging from Ride & Handling to NVH without neglecting the needs of people developing ADAS and AV and performing HMI studies,” said Guido Bairati, VP of Sales and Marketing, VI-grade. “Today we can proudly say that VI-grade provides reliable Driving Simulator solutions for the entire frequency range, helping customers bridge the gap between testing and simulation in an even more consistent way for all different disciplines - all this in an integrated product line!”

NVH simulation enables managers and customers alike to 'drive' competing vehicles and previous models in highly realistic scenarios so engineers can quantify their hypotheses. When working with NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) in the development of a ground vehicle, it’s all about tuning the components of the vehicle to ensure it will have the desired sound (internally and externally) and vibration. The more accurate and early in the design phase these properties can be evaluated, the more value the tool will have, since it is more expensive to make modifications when the car is about to leave the assembly line.

About the NVH Simulator
NVH Simulator creates an interactive driving experience of a vehicle’s interior noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), bringing your sound and vibration data into the real world, so it can be experienced by real people. Highly accurate vehicle sound is played through headphones or speakers, allowing the driver to experience the sound quality of a vehicle throughout all of the dynamic aspects of driving, like changing gears and accelerating, on a smooth road or even bouncing across a field. This software is commonly paired with a steering wheel and pedals so that drivers can interact with NVH in driving scenarios. This immersive context for sound evaluations helps people understand NVH data, understand the effects of design changes on sound and vibration, select appropriate sounds and compare alternative designs – whether they are engineers or non-experts. NVH Simulation increases confidence in the decision-making process, whether evaluating virtual or physical prototype updates.

About VI-grade
VI-grade is the leading provider of best-in-class software products and services for advanced applications in the field of system-level simulation. Along with a network of selected partners, VI-grade also provides revolutionary turnkey solutions for static and dynamic driving simulation.
Established in 2005, VI-grade delivers innovative solutions for streamlining the development process from concept to sign-off in the transportation industry, and there mainly in the automotive, aerospace, motorcycle, motorsports and railway sectors. With its office locations in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Japan, China, and the USA and a worldwide channel network of more than 20 trusted partners, VI-grade is a dynamic and growing company with a highly skilled technical team.

Since September 2018, VI-grade has been part of Spectris. Spectris is an FTSE 250 listed global conglomerate with 2017 sales of over $2B and 9,800 employees. The firm conducts business in four major segments - materials analysis, testing & measurement, in-line instrumentation and industrial controls - and serves a broad range of industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to electronics, energy, mining and pharmaceuticals.