Next-level Product Design with Altair: The Faraone Success Story

Presentation by Gabriele Romagnoli, Civil Engineer at Faraone as part of the ATCx AEC 2025 conference.

This presentation explores Faraone's relationship with Altair since 2015, where the main objective was to design and develop components, such as balustrades, within the shortest possible time, reducing the time to market and testing cycles. The engineering team began the design from scratch using simulation and optimization to drive the process. They created a simple aluminum profile, which was then optimized in Altair Inspire, inspiring the final design that was validated within the same software.

This presentation by Eng. Gabriele Romagnoli explores how Faraone integrated Altair Inspire and Altair SimSolid into its structural glass product development workflow. Highlighting the redesign of the Ninfa 106 balustrade and the development of the Maior Evo system, it demonstrates how simulation-driven design enabled a 15–20% weight reduction and 5% stiffness improvement.

Using topology optimization and meshless, CAD-based non-linear analysis, Faraone rapidly validated complex structures—such as multi-story glass staircases—without traditional meshing.

The approach accelerated development cycles, improved material efficiency, and ensured optimal stress distribution and deflection control. This case exemplifies the transformative impact of advanced simulation tools on architectural and structural engineering innovation.