CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 May 2007
Implementation Investments
SolidWorks and COSMOS Software Help ORBIS Stretch the Boundaries of Plastic Design
SolidWorks ® 3D CAD and COSMOSWorks® analysis software helped packaging company ORBIS, formerly LINPAC Materials Handling, avoid millions of dollars in extra costs producing a super-sized, state of the art container that stretched plastic design to its limits, SolidWorks Corporation announced. ORBIS Corporation acquired LINPAC Materials Handling in January 2007.
Design Engineer Todd Turner estimates SolidWorks and COSMOS software reduced retooling costs by 50 percent for its new SmartVaultT container that LINPAC (now ORBIS) custom designed for Smart Move, Inc. (MVE), a Denver, CO based asset management company.
Engineers used COSMOSWorks to analyze the design for weaknesses and SolidWorks to modify the design, which eliminated late-stage changes that previously forced the company to alter production lines after they were built. "The software also cut anywhere from six months to a year from the development cycle," Turner said, "and enabled us to manufacture the SmartVaultT on an existing injection press instead of having to invest in a new press.
"We had to get the design under a certain weight so it could be molded on our existing presses and keep material costs down," Turner said. "The design had to be very precise to fit on the press and deliver the needed strength. We couldn't possibly have done so exact a design without SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks."
The result is a packing case light enough for economical common carrier shipping, yet large and strong enough for Smart Move, Inc. to ship household goods, and commercial goods in a cost-effective, secure, state of the art container. "Though outwardly a simple plastic box, the SmartVaultT was just as complicated to design as an aircraft wing, if not more," Turner said, "because of plastic's physical properties."
"The SmartVaultT is a very new design for a plastic container. Our container components are very large for plastic structures, and we couldn't have them very thick or add too many steel support bars because we had to minimize weight," Turner said. "To create the necessary support, we needed a very complex mesh structure comprised of thin walls. That created a lot of deflection in the design, and we had to anticipate where excessive deflection would cause a failure. We fed the material properties of the structural foam we used into COSMOSWorks, and were easily able to analyze the foam's behavior in different configurations."
Customers in industries as varied as electronic components, aerospace, construction and consumer packaged goods use SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks software to finely calculate material use. Analyzing with COSMOSWorks and modifying with SolidWorks helps engineers create products strong enough to resist failures yet with no extra material to add weight and cost.
"Design optimization is a major component of superior product design," said Ramesh Ramalingam, SolidWorks manager of product management, analysis products. "A material-efficient product is better than a product that might be equal in every other way because it costs less to manufacture and is less wasteful at the end of its life. The innovative SmartVaultT container demonstrates the imagination of the ORBIS design team and the flexibility and power of the SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks software, together they were able to overcome stringent design requirements and material use restrictions to produce a superior solution for their customer."
ORBIS has realized additional significant savings on other design projects since switching to SolidWorks and COSMOS. ORBIS works with SolidWorks reseller 3DVision Technologies for technical support and maintenance.
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