|
Concrete equipment leader standardizes on SolidWorks
to streamline machine engineering process |
Besser Company has significantly compressed its mold
design cycle
CONCORD, Mass. , Jan. 10, 2005 – Besser
Company, one of the world's leading concrete products
equipment manufacturers, has standardized on SolidWorks®
3D mechanical design and COSMOS® design analysis
software to streamline the design of its extensive
product line.
Based in
Michigan with manufacturing operations throughout the
Americas , Asia , and Europe, Besser Company recently
purchased SolidWorks Office Professional software for
its engineering department, which had previously used a
variety of mechanical design software packages,
including Autodesk Inventor® and Pro/ENGINEER® .
Besser
Company designs and manufactures equipment for the
aggregate, block, cement, landscape/hardscape, pipe,
precast, prestressed, and ready-mix segments of the
concrete industries. Standardizing on SolidWorks has
already helped Besser engineers in Montreal shave a
significant amount of time from the concrete mold design
process.
Before
standardizing on a single product, the company's
engineering managers at each site performed an intensive
evaluation process involving five mechanical design
offerings. After a year's worth of study, SolidWorks
software became the clear choice because of its large,
enthusiastic, and dynamic user community and the
performance of the software itself.
“Engineering managers at each site consistently rated
SolidWorks software superior in two critical areas: ease
of use and overall functionality,” related Tim Farley,
Besser Company's director of engineering. “These
advantages will help us achieve our goal of sharing
engineering talent and designs among all Besser sites.
We now view our staff as a ‘pool' of engineers that can
be engaged, regardless of their physical location, to
smooth workloads and fast-track product development. We
believe SolidWorks is the best tool to help us realize
this goal.”
One of
SolidWorks software's greatest strengths is its ability
to automate model development using template designs and
parameters and, when necessary, simple Visual Basic code
– unlike the locked-down proprietary code of other
packages. This design automation will provide a
configurator (template) which can be used by staff
throughout the company to “plug and chug” to create
designs. This will give engineers more time to work on
compelling engineering challenges, according to Farley.
Besser
Company is also discovering new efficiencies in other
SolidWorks tools. For instance, engineers using
SolidWorks COSMOSWorks® and COSMOSMotion™ analysis
software have uncovered and corrected hidden failure
points prior to prototyping precast concrete forms and
critical machine parts such as rotating shafts.
Discovering and eliminating hidden failure points early
in the design process lets Besser move more quickly into
production, saving time and money, and generating
revenue from new products sooner.
Besser
Company engineers are using SolidWorks' eDrawings™
e-mail-enabled communication tool to streamline customer
approval cycles by sharing 3D models instead of 2D
drawings. 3D models are easier for customers to
understand, meaning they are likely to approve designs
faster. SolidWorks' PDMWorks® product data management
tool will manage Besser Company documents, controlling
master versions, streamlining revisions, and
facilitating reuse of designs that were successful in
other projects.
“A concrete
masonry unit or landscape product at first glance
appears simple, but the machines that make them – as
well as the concrete pipe, precast, and ready-mix
materials that make up buildings, homes, landscaping,
and public infrastructure – are as complex as any
industrial machine,” said Jeff Ray, SolidWorks chief
operating officer. “Besser has occupied the forefront of
this technology for more than a century and is using
SolidWorks to maintain and expand its leadership
position.”
Besser
Company works with authorized SolidWorks reseller DASI
Solutions for ongoing software training, implementation,
and support. |
