Vimar optimizes flush-to-wall design and optical precision in electrical devices with Ansys and ESSS
“A key element of simulation is that it allows us to anticipate risks and expand the scope of experimentation, significantly reducing both modification times and costs.”
Pierluigi Passera, Electromechanical Research and Development Director, Vimar
Vimar, an Italian leader in smart home automation and electronic systems since 1945, has built its history on continuous innovation, from the invention of the Sicury patent (a safety mechanism for electrical sockets) in 1968 to today’s most advanced smart home automation. To maintain this pioneering DNA and develop high-end product lines, the company relies on a strategic pillar: engineering simulation.
By integrating Ansys tools and ESSS technical expertise, Vimar has revolutionized its hardware development process. The adoption of virtual prototyping has become the authentic engine of engineering innovation, allowing the company to anticipate risks, optimize complex geometries, and accelerate the launch of solutions that unite structural excellence and optical precision.
The challenge of flush-to-wall design
The Linea series, a high-quality line of switches, sockets, and cover plates by Vimar, has a unique feature in the market: a flush-to-wall design (filo muro), achieved thanks to its extremely reduced thicknesses. However, this aesthetic feature considerably complicates the development of the entire internal geometry of the product.
The engineering goal was to create a new support with new shapes, optimizing material usage from the start and remaining strictly within very strict design constraints.
With close support from ESSS, the engineering team faced two major challenge fronts: structural and optical.
On the structural side, the team used Ansys solutions to verify the integrity of the Linea series supports, ensuring all required technical requirements. As Vimar was already familiar with Ansys tools, ESSS support was fundamental to push design exploration to the limit, providing high confidence in the simulation result even before the launch of final manufacturing tools.
Advanced optical simulation and the Compasso d’Oro award
The greatest technological leap, however, occurred in lighting and optical simulation, an area where the company’s initial experience required enhancement.
The challenge was to use light not only as functional signaling but as a purely decorative element, respecting all the physical constraints of the product. This required a highly complex development path in the creation of optical components.
Thanks to simulation tools and the partnership with ESSS, engineers successfully recreated exactly a Fresnel semi-lens and end prisms at the final part of the equipment, determining elements that allowed perfecting the project’s aesthetics.
The result was an innovative, safe, and reliable product, obtained with predictability and which generated an immediate return already in the first phase of industrialization.
This advanced competence in using Ansys optical simulation was soon capitalized in the development of a subsequent product: the Eikon Exé Tondo line. In it, light was consolidated as a fundamental design feature. All this structured development culminated in winning the prestigious Compasso d’Oro Internazionale award in 2025.
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Highlights
- Company: Vimar (an Italian leader in smart home automation, electrical solutions, and electronic systems).
- Challenge: Overcome strict thickness constraints for the Linea series’ flush-to-wall design and optimize complex optical components using light as a decorative element.
- Solution: Integration of structural integrity analysis and optical/lighting simulation via Ansys tools, with advanced technical support from ESSS.
- Result: Optimization of material usage, drastic reduction in modification costs and times, very high predictability before manufacturing final tools, and winning the prestigious Compasso d’Oro Internazionale award in 2025.
About Vimar
With an infrastructure composed of 1,300 employees and presence in over 100 countries, Vimar is one of the main global players in the manufacturing of electrical materials and smart systems (smart home automation) for the residential, commercial, and naval sectors. With a strong vocation for R&D and Made in Italy design, the company offers interconnected solutions to manage energy, security, and communication, uniting technological reliability and aesthetic quality.
About ESSS
ESSS has gained international recognition by providing a complete range of numerical simulation solutions to over 1500 companies in sectors such as oil and gas, aerospace, mining, automotive, and energy, accompanied by superior customer support and related engineering services. These capabilities enable customers to take full advantage of the Ansys multiphysics portfolio while exposing simulation to all levels of the engineering organization. ESSS is an Apex Channel Partner and the official representative of Ansys, part of Synopsys, for Latin America, Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
