GAMING

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.