Case Study: NACCO Materials Handling Group achieves 50% reduction in pre‑processing time and solves stubborn design problems with Altair’s HyperWorks suite

NACCO Materials Handling Group - Customer Case Study

NACCO Materials Handling Group, maker of Yale® and Hyster® lift trucks, faced costly, time-consuming cycles of physical prototyping and FEA iterations at its Fairview development center. To shorten time to market and reduce prototype costs, NACCO adopted Altair’s HyperWorks suite under Chief Engineer Dr. Pedro Bastias to move more design, testing and evaluation into virtual simulation.

Altair implemented HyperWorks tools — including HyperMesh for pre-processing, OptiStruct for optimization, and RADIOSS/MotionView/MotionSolve for broader simulation needs — enabling virtual fixes that previously required multiple shop iterations. The results: pre-processing/meshing time was halved (from four weeks to two), OptiStruct produced solutions that passed tests after a single analysis (resolving a counterweight support plate and a problematic gusset), and overall prototype cycles and costs were significantly reduced thanks to Altair’s suite.

NACCO Materials Handling Group

Fred Forstner

Engineering Manager