SolidWorks 3D CAD Software- A Competitive advantage in the Pump Industry

The pump industry in India has been witnessing cut throat competition in the past years. Being in a highly fragmented industry with limited scope for product differentiation, pump manufacturers face an increasingly challenging task of sustaining technological lead while maintaining cost competitiveness. To stay competitive and to position themselves, pump manufacturers have to fundamentally transform their product development processes, and CAD/CAM/CAE technology is playing a vital role in this transformation.

Leading pump manufacturers in India have succeeded in reducing indirect costs and improving product quality by adopting quality and reengineering initiatives and removing non-value adding processes in manufacturing. 

These initiatives helped companies stay competitive in the past, but are no longer sufficient by themselves in today’s competitive market. The need of the hour is an integrated approach to the product development process starting with customer requirements at one end and ending with the final product at the other.

SolidWorks Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology with 3D modeling as the backbone can provide pump manufacturers a powerful tool to launch transformation initiatives in product development. 3D modeling provides a fundamentally different approach from traditional 2D processes by capturing a very accurate and intuitive representation of the designer's intent. There are examples of pump manufacturers in India being able to reduce product development times by as much as 50 percent by shifting to a SolidWorks 3D modeling approach to product design.

Reverse engineering, a subset of CAD provides a flexible approach for manufacturers wanting to create accurate 3D models from existing products.

Selecting the right CAD solution can be quite a challenge to pump manufacturers. The following is a generic list of criteria for Knowing SolidWorks 3D CAD Software:
 

►   Complete and scalable solution
►   Powerful 3D modeling with strong reverse engineering capability
►   Built-in data management capability
►   Ease of use
►   Openness of the solution in terms of data exchange
►   Availability of skilled manpower in industry
►   Availability of good local support as well as remote (hotline) support
►   Sustainability of the solution developer and much more.

The pump industry in India is poised for major growth with new opportunities opening up in the coming years. However, the successful manufacturers will be the only ones who effectively transform their product development processes by leveraging SolidWorks 3D CAD Software. SolidWorks 3D CAD Software is no longer a "nice-to-have" application; it has become a strategic necessity for survival in the industry.

What’s New in SolidWorks 2011: DEFEATURE TOOL

SolidWorks 2011 has come up with a number of updated features in the Software. We will be discussing one of the best features incorporated in 2011 version of the same.

We just created this great model, now you would like us to do WHAT??

Defeature it??

Yes, that’s right; SolidWorks has come up with a tool to get rid of all the small details in your part.

But the question is: why would you ever want to do this and use this feature?

You would require this when you are going to share this model with someone who needs to build “around” it, but you don’t want them to see all the intellectual data present INSIDE it… Perhaps you have downloaded an assembly (or part) off the internet and you want to quickly dumb it down…

The DEFEATURE tool, new in SolidWorks 2011, will let you remove details from a part or assembly and save the results to a new file in which the details are replaced by dumb solids (with no feature history). 

Isn’t it the best option !!!!

The tool is found under TOOLS—DEFEATURE (while you are in a Part or Assembly file).

There are steps to allow you to specify COMPONENTS to remove from the model (for assembly files only), specify any features you would like to keep (mounting holes, etc.) that may have been automatically removed in the first step, and even a step to allow you to specify if there is any movement/motion you would like to keep ! You also get to preview the “defeatured” model in a cool split screen window before you save it out as a new file.

One of the best things is that when you defeature an assembly, it will get saved as a multi-body PART file, so you don’t have all the references to worry about sending to someone or maintaining yourself. Also, any open areas in the model will be “filled in” with solid material!

Be sure to check out this new tool in SolidWorks 2011!!