Mechanical Application Brief

Driveline Simulation

The Problem

A driveline, also called a driveshaft, is a device that transfers energy from an engine to somewhere else that it needs to be applied. In the agricultural industry, drivelines are most often used to get power from a tractor's engine to a machine that it pulls. Engineers wanting to design a driveline for an agricultural application take measurements of heavy equipment out in the field and then simulate operating conditions back at the lab so they can decide what kind of driveline is necessary for a specific application. Weasler Engineering, in West Bend, Wisconsin, is an original equipment manufacturer of drivelines for the agricultural industry. They specialize in this type of work for many kinds of agricultural equipment, and are good enough at it that their Research and Development lab has won the highest award in the industry -- the Agricultural Engineering Top 50 -- seven times in seven years for outstanding innovations in product and system technology.

Flexible Software for Field Applications

Chuck Kocher and Daryl Jaeger are in charge of Weasler's Research and Development Lab. They have designed and built the lab themselves to simulate the field conditions for the drivelines they design. Chuck and Daryl require software tools flexible enough to handle a variety of field applications, since they never know what kind of conditions they will have to simulate next. Additionally, they want their software to be fast and easy to use