The unique LMS Test.Lab OPAX solution is a fast, test-based procedure which supports troubleshooting of vibro-acoustic problems in a very efficient and reliable way. LMS’ breakthrough approach is nearly as accurate as conventional TPA and almost as fast as traditional operational path methods that often fail to identify the root cause of vibrations and find remedies to NVH problems.
The LMS Test.Lab OPAX solution separates loads and transfer paths so that vibro-acoustic energy can easily be traced right from the source, through a set of known structure-borne and airborne pathways directly to a given receiver location. This helps engineers accurately identify the root cause of the problem quicker than ever before with the minimum of time-consuming measurements. The solution supports contribution analysis for stationary or run-up and run-down operating conditions. Structure-borne and airborne loads can be estimated together or separately, using a minimum set of additional indicators to increase the reliability of the estimated loads.
The LMS Test.Lab OPAX solution follows the same convenient workflow as other LMS Test.Lab Transfer Path Analysis-based solutions. At each instance of the process, clear user-feedback is given. The TPA source-transfer-receiver model can be filled up in a very flexible way, with different data sets that can be easily compared against each other for different operating cases under investigation. Operational loads can be defined accurately using the SDOF-estimator or band-estimator methods. Users can further increase the data reliability by adding information about the actual physics of the investigated system to the estimation process.
Throughout the application, display layouts will automatically switch to layouts specific for the data evaluation at hand.
Because of its versatility in a wide range of applications, conventional transfer path analysis (TPA) is one of the most widely used methods for studying NVH problems in automotive, aerospace and manufacturing industries. In this approach, the way vibrations and radiated noise travel from source to receiver – through structural connections such as engine mounts, for example, as well as airborne sound reaching passenger ears – is represented with noise transfer functions (NTFs), a precise ratio of output at the receiver to input loads and forces for each vibration path. 
When new products are developed, one of the constraints manufacturers run into is the difficulty to gain a fast understanding of weak points in the design. Extensive development consultancy experience has allowed LMS Engineering Services to develop analysis methods to overcome this constraint. Advances in testing and simulation technology, for example, made it possible to overcome the constraints of Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) method and allowed LMS to create techniques that can be applied throughout the development process. 
