Automotive component manufacturer, ARB Corporation, has decreased its time-to-market by two-thirds as a result of its CAD/CAM imple mentation from Intercad.
ARB is an Australian-owned company that designs and manu factures accessories to suit most current and older-model four- wheel drive vehicles. ARB sells direct to the public from its show room in Melbourne and to OEMs including Toyota and Nissan.
ARB is one of Intercad’s longest- standing customers, having first purchased the company’s SolidWorks product in 1998. ARB had always been an early adopter of new technologies.
“We are at the point where lower-end overseas manufacturers are copying our products, right down to putting ARB stickers on their products,” says the company’s engineering manager, Ivan Clencie.
“Our challenge is to ramp up our R&D efforts and to stay ahead by producing better products more quickly, which we have been able to do with the help of Intercad’s products and services.”
ARB has a dedicated R&D unit, which includes engineers from Clencie’s team. He says improve ments in the company’s design cycle have decreased its time-to- market and also freed up engi neers to work on new products.
“The improvements in our design cycle have meant we can service the market better and put more effort into the development of what I call ‘left-field’ products that differentiate us from lower- end manufacturers,” says Clencie.
One of these ‘left-field’ products is ARB’s 4WD Fridge Freezer. The development of this product took more than three years of research and design, followed by extensive testing in the workshop and the field. Clencie says the product development would not have been possible if the company hadn’t realised the savings possible from its CAD/CAM implementation.
As part of its strive to continue to innovate and invest in new tech nology, ARB has recently pur chased product data management software, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, from Intercad, which pro vides version control and secure design data re-use for large design teams which work with multiple suppliers and customers.
ARB has installed and tested SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and will shortly go live with the soft ware. When purchasing the prod uct ARB also invested in cus tomised training from Intercad to ensure its staff get up to speed quickly. Clencie says Intercad’s service and knowledge of ARB’s business are two of the core values it provides to the company.
“The customised training Intercad provides is essential in getting the most of the new pro grams we invest in,” says Clencie.
“One of the good things about SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is that it has a familiar look and feel to our previous PDM system, which, along with the training, will help our engineers get up- to-speed quickly.”
Along with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, ARB has a com bination of SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation seats installed at its Melbourne design facility.
SolidWorks Simulation provides the company with finite element analysis (FEA), which allows it to virtually test the structural components of its products for interferences which may affect the end result.