Case Study: CLAAS (agricultural machinery maker) cuts assembly and maintenance costs by reducing a harvester reel from 8 parts to 2 with Altair OptiStruct

OptiStruct Technology Cuts Production and Maintenance Costs of Crop Harvester Reel Assembly

CLAAS, a global leader in agricultural machinery, needed to reduce production and serviceability costs for its harvester reel hub assembly while preserving rigidity and making individual hubs easier to replace. To meet these goals they partnered with Altair and used Altair OptiStruct for design optimization.

Altair used OptiStruct’s topography optimization to define an optimal reinforcement bead pattern, enabling CLAAS to redesign the hub into a two-piece assembly from the original eight-part design. The OptiStruct-driven solution cut welding operations, reduced displacements by 70%, simplified in-service maintenance (allowing individual hub removal), and improved assembly efficiency while avoiding costly trial-and-error development.

CLAAS