Case Study: GN ReSound achieves more durable, faster-to-market hearing aids with Dassault Systèmes' Abaqus (SIMULIA)

GN ReSound - Customer Case Study

GN ReSound, the hearing-aid business of GN Store Nord, needed to design ever-smaller, higher-performance hearing aids that could survive real-world hazards such as drops, heat, moisture and vibration. To predict and mitigate impact damage to the delicate receiver mechanism early in development, GN ReSound turned to Abaqus Unified FEA from SIMULIA — a brand of Dassault Systemes — to move beyond trial-and-error physical testing.

Using Dassault Systemes’ Abaqus for explicit-impact and viscoelastic simulations (and SIMULIA Tosca for rubber topology optimization), GN ReSound modeled free-fall events, pre-deformed rubber suspensions, and validated results with high-speed video and pendulum tests. Iterating designs and adding small rubber tabs reduced predicted peak g-forces from about 15,000 g to roughly 11,000 g (below the receiver’s failure threshold), improving robustness and shortening time-to-market while giving engineers greater confidence in new products.

GN ReSound

Morten Birkmose Sondergaard

Senior Acoustic Engineer