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Q& A
From bearings to eMobility with Romax Technology
Engineering Reality Magazine recently interviewed Dr. Peter (Siu
Yun) Poon, MBE, founder of Romax Technology, which became part of
Hexagon | MSC Software in June 2020. Still going strong as he
approaches his ninth decade, Romax was based on his vision to
engineer a better world through the power of computer simulation,
and stems from his deep-rooted passion for engineering and desire
to improve the future of rotating machinery. Born in China, he came
from Hong Kong to Britain in 1962 where he got his PhD at Bristol
University, worked in industry including at the leading bearing
company RHP and conducted research at Cambridge University, finally
setting up Romax (Rotating Machinery Experts) in 1989. He is still
active in various business ventures around the world and has
received awards from Royalty, Prime Ministers, and learned
institutions around the globe. He became an MSC Software Fellow in
July 2020.
Dr. Peter Poon, MBE, founder of Romax Technology
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Q. Tell us about your early life and what influences made you
such an engineering inventor and pioneer?
A. I was born in 1934 in China. My father was an entrepreneur,
and my mother always encouraged me to think out of the box, to
consider new
things, and to ask questions. I loved to construct and invent
things; when I was ten, I made an electric motor out of a can from
an empty 555 Cigarette Tin! I developed an interest in bearings
when I studied contact behavior relating to Aerospace engines for
my PhD, sponsored by Siddeley Engines
(now part of Rolls Royce). After that I joined RHP as
engineering manager, where I worked on bearing designs for new
applications, supplementing my theoretical knowledge with practical
experience. Later on, I worked with Professor Kenneth Johnson at
Cambridge University, and wrote a
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seminal paper on contact stresses and surface roughness. During
this time I got into mathematical modelling, systems engineering,
artificial intelligence and statistical measurements – all of which
became core components of Romax. Around this time, however, I
suffered a really bad bicycle accident. I was left in hospital for
several months and lost 80% of my sight. During my recovery, I had
lots of time to think about and all the things I wanted to do. I
couldn’t drive afterwards, and I realized that consulting was
probably the best way for me to earn a living for my family. I
thought deeply about engineering simulation problems and considered
stress-strain equations from first principles at the integral level
as applied to manufacturing design. Soon after, we made a bid for a
NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology, Department of
Commerce) project in the US and we won. That was pivotal to setting
up Romax and to funding the next 2-3 years of software coding.
Developing this technology to devise electro-mechanical simulation
software in the late 80s was a truly pioneering approach. In the
1990s we even came up with object-oriented code before Microsoft
did! We were so confident of our software when we released it that
we told customers that if it did not work after a month’s trial,
they could send it back for a refund. We had no takers; our
software helped them save tens of millions of dollars.
Q. Why does Romax talk so much about a “Full System Approach”
particularly with transmission systems?
A. The complex interactions between all the components of a
transmission system can have a cumulative effect which can’t be
fully understood if the components are analysed in isolation. This
starts at a basic level between the core components: shafts, gears
and bearings. Simulating complex physics and components is all very
well and good, but getting the core system right is crucial. If the
interactions between these core components are not correctly
predicted, none of the results will be trustworthy. With
transmissions, it is all one connected system where all the
components
affect each other. The only way to get accurate system
deflections and misalignments is to model the whole system, and
then analyse it iteratively. And possibly the most complex part of
this system in terms of simulation is the bearings. Accurate
bearing simulation is critical – if the bearing stiffness is not
captured correctly, the entire simulation model will be wrong. With
the move into electrification, the benefits of simulating electric
components together with mechanical are becoming ever more
critical. I believe that a holistic simulation philosophy is the
only way to truly understand system performance. That’s why we
created a services-based global Design Team a few years ago to
offer everything from multi-physics design simulation to
verification & validation testing and safe deployment. At
Romax, we were the first company to develop a full systems approach
to gearbox analysis. In this way, we drastically changed the whole
industry. We pioneered in research and innovation and heavily
invested in the development of innovation and technology
advancement. This transformed not only our business, but the entire
landscape around us.
Q. Tell us about your “Bit to It” philosophy?
A. In the early days I coined the phrase “the requirement is
your
demand” when I founded Romax. It was in recognition that product
requirements are fundamental to any successful engineering design
process. The product requirement should be your demand. That demand
will require and produce information. Your process is to refine
that information. By ‘Bit” I mean the product specification and by
“It” I mean the end product. There are processes for single
component design but it is always harder to do a whole system and
to get it right first time. Engineering design processes are highly
elaborate systems these days and even include system-of-systems.
Hence a holistic system design process with integrated processes
for system-of-systems is required. We should always be looking at
simplicity and elegance in our design processes where we aim to
order our tooling at 6 months versus 8 months or 12 months.
Q. Where is the real value in computer-aided engineering to be
had?
A. The figure on page 9 clearly illustrates the benefits of
upfront predictive CAE simulation tools during the full product
lifecycle. For any product, no matter what it is, there is always a
total cost of design and manufacture and those costs can be pretty
much tied down by the end of the prototyping phase when it becomes
increasingly harder to change designs without huge cost
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implications. This is where CAE has such a high
return-on-investment. If you design your product right in the first
place you will have reduced your manufacturing costs
dramatically.
Q. Tell us about Romax’s foray into Wind Turbine driveline
design 10-20 years ago?
A. Wind power is very important for the sustainability of our
planet because it is clean and renewable, albeit dependent on
weather patterns. We started working on wind turbine gearbox
designs twenty years ago. It could take 5 years to get a particular
wind turbine gearbox design right at
the time and needless to say they are expensive to build and
maintain. Getting the design time down and right first time is
therefore critical. When we applied the Romax philosophy to these
gearboxes we got the design cycle time down from 36 months to 9
months including prototyping.
Q. Electrification is coming, where does Romax solutions fit in
to the mix?
A. The future is clearly electrical in so many industries as it
is a very clean energy source for a sustainable planet. It is the
most efficient way of transmitting energy, it leads to the most
efficient motors, and the best control strategies can be generated
with electrical systems. We started work on eMobility 10 years ago
with a collaboration in a research group at Sheffield University in
the UK. We wanted to be the leader in electric transmission systems
by bringing our right first time approach from conventional
mechanical transmissions to the challenges of ePowertrains and
we’ve now got a track record of helping over 50 successful electric
vehicle projects for OEMs, startups and assorted
innovators in this field around the world including many of the
big name players in the last 5 years alone.
Q. What are your thoughts on Design-for-Manufacture?
A. From our humble beginnings at Romax we always wanted to
identify opportunities to automate design processes with the
ultimate goal of making it right first time. If you produce a
design for a component, you need to work with production engineers
and their production processes. One component is relatively easy to
do. However, you then have to take into account mass production
completely and cheaply for that component which will include
forging, rough machining and heat treatment etc. And if components
are not good quality you have to scrap them, go back to the start
and take a financial loss. And you can imagine that when you have
multiple components inside a system the order of complexity goes up
dramatically and the risk of failure rises. So, getting design
aligned with manufacturing is absolutely critical in my view and it
was one of the reasons why we chose to be part of Hexagon
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Manufacturing Intelligence going forward. I believe that the
design process must absolutely align with the machining process
from the get-go to ensure final quality, prevent redesigns and
avoid recalls. And all testing should involve testing of the
elements of the process to improve each component incrementally.
The part that involves human intervention today is the bit that
needs judgement and balancing of demands. But with autonomy coming
to manufacturing in the 21st century, and the rise of Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning, the subjective human element
will become less and less in future.
Q. You have been an innovator all your life. Where does your
inspiration come from?
A. Everything around me. Be curious, ask questions, and break
things down to the underlying principles to understand your problem
– once you understand the problem you can find a solution! And
build simulation ecosystems (between products and partner
companies) that create intricate webs for nurturing collaboration
and the sharing of
knowledge. This philosophy is what has allowed Romax to optimise
everything globally; from people to processes and products... it is
the very core of our ‘Right First Time’ philosophy. We are born
with curiosity as children, but we are normally encouraged not to
ask questions at school; we must ask questions! You will not get
the right answer unless you ask the right question. Keep asking
questions and always ask the fundamental questions!
Q. What skills do you think are vital for inventors and
innovators to have that young engineers of the future need to
know?
A. They need to think in an inter-disciplinary way, especially
as we go into the future. Engineering is no longer split into
“Mechanical”, “Electrical” etc. They need to learn a bit of
everything and bring that to their work. This is a new approach for
the 21st century but polymaths of the 18th and 19th centuries
crossed disciplines and we are going back to that paradigm. One
must understand the base physical principles of any problem you are
dealing with first, be it why the dentist drill hurts when
it doesn’t actually cut anything (current theory: heat), or why
a dripping tap can clean a greasy dish overnight, when one on full
power could not (current theory: cavitation and distribution in
drip size/force). Always think for a long time, test your theories,
then find engineering solutions. It is an exciting time to be a
young engineer because so many new simulation tools are available
to help you invent the products and processes of the future.
Learn more about Romax Technology: www.romaxtech.com
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