Dätwyler: High Performance in Products, Simulations, and Computing

Although they are usually invisible, Dätwyler’s components made of elastomers, thermoplastics, and liquid silicone are everywhere – especially where precision and safety matter most. Every day, more than 100 million components developed with the help of simulations are produced. As demand, complexity, and globalization of simulation rapidly increase, Dätwyler has strategically renewed its IT infrastructure and HPC resources with CADFEM. The company’s story began over 100 years ago in Altdorf, in the Swiss canton of Uri. Today, Dätwyler operates worldwide and employs more than 8,000 people.

Every year, several billion elastomer parts are produced, found wherever safety, precision, and innovation are essential: in pharmaceutical and medical technology products, food packaging, and the mobility or energy sectors.

Dätwyler designs, develops, and manufactures elastomer components for and with its customers – components that perform intelligently and sustainably within complete systems. Billions of times over, in medical devices or drug delivery systems and food packaging. Dätwyler solutions also play a key role in the mobility transition, from membranes for emission reduction to battery components and hydrogen seals.

Various Dätwyler components for electric vehicles | © Dätwyler

Expertise From Concept to Series Production

The entire product development process is covered – from pre-development through design and prototyping to series production and assembly. Long-term customer relationships are also strengthened by continuously exploring improvement potential.

This is where simulation comes into play. “Product development without simulation is no longer conceivable for us,” says Rudolf Randler, Head of Simulation at Dätwyler. Ansys has been a fixture at Dätwyler since 2006. Customers particularly value the combination of extensive project experience and deep material and process knowledge, especially in co-engineering projects.

Simulations are firmly embedded in Dätwyler’s product development processes. | © Dätwyler

In addition to mostly nonlinear structural mechanics calculations, process simulations of deep-drawing or filling operations are carried out. Interest in expanding these capabilities is high because Dätwyler knows that simulations significantly shorten development cycles and help meet strict time and quality requirements. They not only replace costly prototype testing but also provide precise insights into product behavior under typical manufacturing and operating loads. These findings offer enormous potential for improvements and innovations.

Computing Resources Pushed to the Limit

More simulation engineers and projects, increasingly complex and parallelized calculations, ever more demanding, highly nonlinear models, shorter timeframes … eventually, Dätwyler’s existing IT infrastructure for simulation and HPC could no longer keep pace with rising demands. A race for computing power began among users because, ultimately, only two calculations could run on 12 cores or, if parallelization was required, just one on a maximum of 36 cores. This imbalance between required and available computing power severely impacted efficiency.

In short: the pressure was immense. A powerful, flexible, and future-proof hardware solution for current and future challenges was long overdue – both for simulation tasks themselves and in view of organizational changes.

With the new system, colleagues across all locations can work simultaneously without any limitations or bottlenecks. | © Dätwyler

The Path to Dätwyler IT Infrastructure 2.0

In a globally operating group, a project to overhaul the central computing infrastructure only works if teams collaborate across departments and countries. At Dätwyler, the following were involved:

• In Schattdorf, Switzerland: the simulation team and local IT
• In Pune, India: the global hardware and network team from Dätwyler IT Services
• In Alken, Belgium: investment management
• In Altdorf, Switzerland: Dätwyler IT Infra and executive management

In addition, CADFEM was brought on board – a long-standing partner of Dätwyler in all matters related to simulation. Even the server now being replaced, which had proven itself for many years, was originally sourced through CADFEM. Moreover, CADFEM is certified by Ansys as an Elite Technology Partner (System Integrator) for IT systems for such projects.

At Dätwyler’s Schattdorf site in Switzerland, you’ll find the largest group of simulation users. | © Dätwyler

Working Together Toward the Goal

After analyzing requirements, a configuration favored by all parties emerged. However, the path to implementing a high-performance system that runs smoothly in the global IT environment was long and involved detailed planning and numerous coordination rounds. Leading the effort were Baswaraj Ramshette and Sameer Ghatole, responsible for global IT infrastructure and networks at Dätwyler in Pune, and the CADFEM IT team with Klaus Fischer, Gerhard Zelder, and Manfred Bayerl. The effort paid off: the jointly developed concept was immediately approved by investment management and executive leadership.

The server system was set up step by step: pre-installation by CADFEM, installation in the server rack and cabling by Dätwyler. Additional support came from Sacha Bissig, a Dätwyler employee with Linux expertise. For commissioning and training on the finished system, all responsible parties met in Altdorf. Test calculations with Ansys were successfully carried out that same day.

The Calculation Adds Up: The Benefits at a Glance

As an Ansys Systems Integrator Partner, CADFEM also implements and operates complex IT environments for HPC applications – from local hardware as a private cloud to public cloud solutions from Ansys based on AWS or Azure. Ansys Systems Integrator Partners are certified service providers for the design, setup, and operation of HPC and IT infrastructures tailored to Ansys and Digital Engineering.

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Cover image: © Dätwyler