Case Study: Haier Group eliminates drop damage and optimizes AC packaging and structure with Altair HyperWorks

Haier Redesigns Air Conditioners and Packaging with Altair HyperWorks to Eliminate Drop Damage

Haier Group, one of the world’s largest home appliance manufacturers, was facing costly shipping damage to its air conditioners caused by drops during transport. Physical drop tests were time-consuming, expensive and could not reveal the rapid internal deformation (under 50 ms) that led to failures. To address this, Haier partnered with Altair and adopted the HyperWorks simulation suite, including HyperMesh, the RADIOSS solver and OptiStruct.

Using Altair HyperWorks, Haier simulated drop tests and calibrated material behavior to redesign both the product chassis and packaging. RADIOSS drop simulations reduced local plastic strain on one unit from 40.2% to 0% and cut packaging-induced strain on another from 71.6% to 6.1%; chassis topology optimization with OptiStruct increased structural strength by 40% without changing materials, and EPS packaging saved 28% weight while improving performance. Altair’s tools eliminated drop damage, reduced physical testing and shortened development time through more efficient use of materials and validated CAE-driven redesigns.

Haier Group

Yundong Chen

Senior CAE Engineer